>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: i'm kristen you are watching "getting answers" on abc seven. we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers in real time. drug overdose deaths are on the rise in the u.s. there is an innovative program in canada that is saving lives by giving drug users a safe place to get high. tara campbell traveled to vancouver to see it firsthand. then a eye-opening experience she reported on in our new abc 7 originals documentary "injecting hope," which we have shared with you all week. tara and a couple bay area guests will join us for a town hall to discuss whether that model work.

me if you have heard me before. another wet, windy system moved through. though it is moving out, we have a chance for thunderstorms. plus strong wind and rain return tomorrow. let's get to meteorologists sandhya patel for a look at the forecast. >> here we go again. this storm is starting to wind down in the next few hours. it will move out of here and the next storm will come in. let's look at live doppler seven. you will notice pretty much we are seeing wet weather about everywhere. light to moderate showers around santa rosa, as we get you into street-level radar, you will see highway 12, we are seeing some moderate pockets of rain. whiteoak drive. there is a flood advisory until 8:00 tonight right around the sonoma county area, also in the beast -- in the east bay, 7th street, oakland, you are getting wet. the peninsula getting rain from kenyatta road across redwood city, san mateo, middlefield

road in palo alto. . at the lower elevations, winds have dropped off. . higher elevations, still gusty. on our exclusive abc 7 news storm impact scale, this is a level two. scattered showers, thunder, flooding chance continues, gusty in the hills and rough surf. as we go hour-by-hour, scattered showers continue through this evening. tomorrow at 5:00, if you are sleeping, you might get woken up by this storm coming in with downpours between 5:00 and 7:30 in the morning, you will see heavy rain and the winds will kick up. behind it, there will be a lull. in the evening, brief pockets of moderate rain. more flooding is possible. a flood watch and effect for the entire bay area, for :00 a.m. tomorrow until 4:00 p.m. monday. area coastal flood advisory runs until monday morning, a combination of onshore winds, heavy runoff, and high tides that will lead to minor

low-lying flooding. if you want to get outside and take a walk, be careful. high surf warning remains up until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. occasional waves will be up to 30 feet. dangerous breakers out there, just something you want to watch from far away. a wind advisory for gusts up to 45 miles an hour, 3:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. on our next storm impact we have a three. tomorrow morning, a strong storm. heavy rain and flooding expected. dangerous surf. thunder chance and wind gust between 40 and 50 miles an hour. here is a live picture from our santa cruz camera where we not only see the rain, but you are seeing the rough surf. these are the kinds of things you will have to deal with. we are not completely done yet. until about the middle of next week. kristen: thank you so much. with so many storms, you can track them on the abc 7 bay area streaming up. we have the latest forecast and

live doppler 7. the app is available to download wherever you stream. a couple of the past few weeks have been the most the folks at the national weather service have seen in years. as it pertains to the bay area and northern california. what are the implications of all of this? joining us live to talk about what is happening is national weather service meteorologist brian garcia. thank you for joining us. brian: my pleasure. thank you for hosting. kristen: you heard are meteorologist who told us we have another system tomorrow. and more next week. can you talk about the flooding threat? i think the folks along the salinas river are hoping the worst is over after some farmlands have been flooding. is it too soon to relax? brian: it is definitely, whenever we get into this active pattern, it is always too soon to relax. . we want to stay vigilant in terms of flooding. the salinas river has large floodplains so water can spread out. what we were able to do his with

the usgs and they did an updated rating curve. we are able to track that water in salinas a little better. it looks we just creedr or so, t spreckels in monterey county. that should be going down, and soon, all of that water will go to the ocean. the threat is starting to slowly subside, but please never let on your vigilance. kristen: what about the russian river? brian: the russian river, we are looking at all of the rain today, starting to drain into the watershed. tomorrow morning, we are going to get heavy rain across the area. all of that will drain down into the watershed as well. the projection is that by tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow evening time frame we are going to start to see waters crest above flood stage. that becomes a very dangerous, precarious situation because if we are cresting at dark, we definitely don't want people out there. if you lived in and around the russian or travel that area, please stay away from the areas that flood, and listen to your

local officials. don't go into areas you can't see especially. kristen: what if we zoom in more and get into the streams level or the creeks, how is that looking? brian: once we get down into the creeks and streams level, those are much smaller basins. they are a little more of what we call flashy. as it rains hard, the -- they will swell up. as the rain stops, they will start to subside. tomorrow morning, especially when we get heavy rains coming through, we are going to see those respond quickly. you will see areas like in santa clara county, you can see the rivers, creeks, and streams rise through that area. especially backyard drainage, cultures, you can see those rise rapidly and spill onto local roadways. the problem there is very localized flooding that will come up quick, and then be gone as the rain starts to taper off. that will happen tomorrow morning as well. kristen: what about the sierra?

we have that winter storm warning. we know that means we should not try to drive. what are the most pressing threats there? brian: it is really critical people pay attention to this. we are talking several feet of snow with this winter storm warning across the sierra. this is a multifaceted type of thing. first of all, do not go into the sierras during the winter storm warning. just do not head up there. i know everybody wants fresh tracks. please refrain from it because we have crews of their, caltrans is up there working, really hard to maintain an open roadway with feet and feet of snow, it will be dangerous for them. to put cars in the way, it is going to be more dangerous. avalanches become a big deal. and then honestly, if you are up skiing, getting stuck in really deep snow, it becomes very dangerous. then of course, cold, cold conditions. if your car gets stranded someplace or run into a snow

bank and you get partially buried, you might not be seen for a while. it is best to just stay home and stay safe. kristen: this is not the best way to receive our yearly water supply, because a lot of what we are getting now, we cannot even store because of the way our reservoirs and dams are for summer usage. if you want to call it wasted, it's wasted. why is it boom or bust like this right now? brian: california has always been a boom or bust state. we go through these droughts, then we go through wet periods. ultimately, that is how we end up getting our normal. you just take it all, average it, and we get our normals. rarely do we get normal, and on the backside of droughts like we have been through, we typically end drought with big floods. at some point, the grounds are so saturated, that we can't absorb that water into the ground anymore, even to recharge our underground area. everything is supersaturated. it runs off. we literally lose that water, we

could lose out on that storage capacity. kristen: i've got to go, but 30 seconds i've got to get the answer to this. when you look ahead to next thursday when it is starting to become drier, is it -- is that a new pattern can we expect drier weather from that point on? brian: from the crystal ball we look in, it looks like after we get into that dry pattern, it looks like the last part of january looks dry. once get into february, we are back. to a winter tight pattern expect more specific fronts throughout our area. kristen: good to know. brian garcia, thank you so much. appreciate it. brian: my pleasure. kristen: we want to talk about injecting hope. we have a town hall for you taking an in-depth look at the new originals documentary on safe injection sites. that is coming up when "getting that is coming up when "getting answers" i had no idea how much i wamy case was worth. c call the barnes firm to find out what your case could be worth. we will help get you the best result possible. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪

>> that is pretty much the number now. >> these are people who are not only struggling to access regular medical -- medicare system, they struggle to access recovery programs because they are not geared to people who are on the street, on the edge of survival. >> one thing i'm sure of is i'm not going to quit trying. >> i have thought hope inside that we can change as people. hope is the anchor. if you don't have hope, you don't have anything. kristen:, a gritty on the ground look at the drug overdose crisis. that is one way to describe our new abc 7 originals documentary "injecting hope." it is an in-depth look at vancouver, a city compared to san francisco, and how it is dealing with drug overdoses. it has north america's first safe injection site. my colleague produced, shot, a

wrote this documentary. she joins us now. it is really eye-opening, it is unflinching, it is thought-provoking, for me anyway. why did you decide to go to vancouver and look at its injection site under this microscope? tara: first, great to hear. i'm glad that is the reaction. seems to be what we are hearing from a lot of people. why vancouver? vancouver very much mirrors san francisco in demographics, it is a port city, also battling the drug overdose crisis. they are the first city in north america to establish a safe injection site. now nearly 20 years ago. we are starting to see the impact of that. as this model is debated in california and san francisco, we thought, let's get up there and show people what it looks like. kristen: but this is not a new idea even to san francisco or california. there has been momentum, and then there has been opposition. it keeps going. tara: right. this past summer, state

lawmakers passed a bill that would have paved the way for safe injection sites in san francisco, oakland, and los angeles that was vetoed by the governor. kristen: even the political support, we did want to have this broader convediffert anglef complexity. we have brought and a couple guests to join in the conversation. . joining us is one of the founders of mothers against drug deaths. and gary mccoy, the policy advisor for health right 360 which operated the tenderloins center, established under the emergency declaration. as you might know, it closed last month. thank you for joining us. ellen: thank you. gary: thanks. kristen: i watched tara's documentary. the question that popped into my head and i think we are trying to answer here is how best to help people who? are addicted to drugs? -- people who are addicted to drugs? is it harm reduction, is it

enforcement? i want to get your thoughts first, gary, as someone who operated the tenderloins center, which is in some ways, nothing, but has similarities to what we saw in vancouver. what did you think? gary:gary: i agree. the tenderloins center was not what we envision as a surprise consumption site. it was set up as a result of a declaration of emergency for public health crisis. i actually think we agree. i don't know it is oppositional in saying that it is enforcement or it is various public health interventions. i think they can be a combination of all of the above. i think that is probably what is necessary. kristen: i microphone that is scratching something. is it me? i don't think it's me. i'm sorry. i apologize. ellen, i wanted to ask if you the same reaction watching

hatara's peace, and hearing from some of the folks that went through the center. . one guy who, 4000 times he went? ellen: 4000 times before successfully entering treatment. kristen: what does that so just to you? ellen: thank you so much for having me here. tara, this is an amazing piece of work you have done. i've learned some really great things as well. i guess for a mother, our group has kids who have suffered from addiction, some who are currently struggling on the streets. when i think of 4000 times, that makes me so sad for people who are struggling. the trauma out there is huge. the toxicity, which you got into too, was amazing and scary. for us, we have a sense of urgency to get people into recovery. we feel like the supervised comes unction -- consumption site is not what we should have now.

places that worked well in europe have a much better infrastructure for treatment. whereas in san francisco, we have 500 beds, 4000 people who are addiction and the rate at which people are getting treatment has been going down for over a decade. we really think the focus should be more on treatment, get people into treatment without delay. we really think the supervised consumption is a step in the wrong direction. tara: thank you, ellen, for those kind words. we really are hearing that the documentary is landing with people. . and i know it is so personal to you. i guess my question would be, and i am familiar with your nonprofit, a lot of work with interviewing you and your cofounders throughout the many months here, but is safe injection seen as a possible step? do i understand it correctly and that you are saying to the city of san francisco, let's get our ducks in a row with these other services first?

ellen: you know, it is interesting because people talk about portugal as the model. what really happened in portugal as they started by dissuading people from getting addicted in the first place. they have these to suasion groups that are set up where somebody who has -- who is seemingly problematic, they will see that this suasion group and get education, health care support, it is all about health and wellness. 90% of the time, that is all person needs. 10% need treatment. so they are catching it early and often, so that the people who end up with addiction are very few. the supervised consumption, i'm told, in portugal, was only introduced a few years ago. it is serving a minority of the people. in san francisco, we have the opposite situation, and i think vancouver too. you can see how even though they have got 15 sites now, the

overdose rate in vancouver is still higher than canada, by double. it is double the rate of canada. sometimes, it can the message that, using these drugs is safe, perpetuates addiction. , even though the best intentions are for them -- for their lives to be saved and eventually get into treatment. kristen: ellen, thank you. gary, thank you. we want to explore more if there are otr ys toea -- other metrics for success as well. we will get into that and alternatives when we come back

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kristen: welcome back. olleague, tara campbell, who did this amazing documentary. are new originals documentary "injecting hope," where you went to vancouver and looked out one of their safe injection sites. it is an idea thatwnroun id andn san francisco, but there are

barriers including legal. before the break, ellen, you were making a distinction between a preference for this suasion versus treatment. i want to bring you in, gary and ask if you think those things could go hand in hand or do they work against each other? do you see it as a multipronged approach? ellen: -- gary: this is all a multipronged approach. having many tools is what we should be focusing on. it is not an accident or treatment versus a harm reduction approach versus whatever other public health interventions there are. it is doing all of it, is scaling all of it up, it is making sure it is all effective and accessible. for us, the goal is abstinence. we have been providing treatment for over 50 years in san francisco. we operate out of other counties and states, and what we see as a treatment provider is we are losing 50% of the people that

come through our doors. a lot of the folks we see on the streets that could benefit from supervised consumption have been to treatment many multiple times. there is a lot of shame around that, there is ambivalence to that. so, making sure we can keep people alive until they can make that next decision that they want to go back into treatment or try another method is important to us. kristen: this part from tara's documentary i think we should see as we consider this conversation. p e sound a about to run? tara: this is part of the documentary, this happens a lot throughout the documentary, where i am spending a lot of time in the alleys speaking with people who are using drugs. as you can see in this clip, i directly ask them, do they access the safe injection site? to get a better understanding of how utilized it is and what kind of impact it is having on their journey towards recovery. kristen: let's take a look. >> so many people are using now.

you are just another number now. >> these are people who not only struggle to access regular medical care system -- >> goal is to get people out of alleys like this, and into a safe place where they can use their drug of choice. >> you are doing this out here by yourself. that is high risk, isn't it? >> it is, in a way. i have a couple places that i use. tara: jk was a mechanirec.d thd oxycontin, and now, he is hooked on fentanyl. >> two years clean. situation that i was not equipped to handle well. tara: is there a reason you do exple,t s>> i actually gohe t

kriste that fosome people, and not all who oppose save injection sites, there is the question of, is this a moral failing on someone's part to get addicted? but this was a guy who almost accidentally got addicted. tara: and so many of them who i spoke with, that was the story. in the documentary, it spans everything from a mother, jk mechanic there, all walks of life impacted. fentanyl is so powerful, people get hooked so quickly. 50 times more powerful than heroin. it has got them really quick. it is very demanding, they are having to inject or inhale every three hours, some of these drug users. kristen: one person in your documentary or -- your documentary described it as, my

body just needs it. trying to understand what that means for a person. can we talk about what you both see as a viable alternatives for san francisco? gary, now we don't have the tenderloin center, and the mayor seems to have put the brakes on it for now, or at least the political powers that be in terms of opening the wellness hubs. what do you see as needing to happen now? gary: i think we have, as we have seen in your documentary, which is great, i think we have seen that for us, san francisco, lessons learned, the tenderloin center, which was not quite what we envisioned, but also fred vancouver who did a lot of work laying that framework for how we could approach the sites. more importantly, looking at how new york city has done their first two sanctions sites in the u.s. they work hand-in-hand with the police department. they work very closely, their

number one partner is the new york police department. and they ensure folks are not in the alleyways and not in isolation. they have alternatives. it can be either enforcement, or you can go into this 24 hour facility. which when they are in that facility, they don't run not high risk of fatal overdose that they would have on the streets. kristen: gary mccoy and ellen grants, i'm sorry, that is all the time we have for now. we really appreciate your insights. folks, you can watch more of tara's insightful reporting on the abc 7 bay area news app, "injecting

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three answering questions with experts. world news tonight with david muir is coming up next and i will s tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the deadly tornado outbreak. at least nine people killed, including a 5-year-old boy. a tree falling on the family car. a tornado tearing through a trucking company. an ef-2 hitting selma. wind there is up to 111 miles per hour. tonight, the horrific death toll, and the story of that boy in the car with his family. now two more storms set to slam the west. another system then moving straight across the country. rob marciano timing it out. also tonight here, the tragic death of lisa marie presley, elvis presley's only child, collapsing at her home just two days after appearing at the golden globes with her