new this morning, if you rely on the ace train to get to work, i hope you have a plan b this morning because the trains aren't running. and it is weather-related. i'm christie smith. that story is coming up in a live report. big problems headed to tahoe. 80 is closed because of too much snow. rain, meanwhile, down here causing all kinds of problems. we'll take you around the bay for the latest. you are looking at a live picture of 880. you can see already there are flashing lights out there. it is going to be a crazy friday, march 25th, this is "today in the east bay."

good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. let's go right to christina loren and a look at the radar. good morning. good morning to you. i would love to stand before you this morning to tell you that the rain is going to stop, but that's just not the case. just a couple more days before we get a nice break from the rain. right now the east bay is getting the heaviest showers. we have moderate rain coming through oakland. this is the case heading throughout the morning hours. we'll see light, spotty activity. a little bit of the orange and yellow indicating more moderate rain, but nothing like we saw yesterday. we are starting off with a much better scenario when it comes to the radar right now. we'll take you through the weekend. after all, it is a getaway friday. if you are trying to getaway, we'll talk to mike inouye to see what it looks like on the roadways. good morning. we had some serious problems through oakland near 880 past 23rd, but overnight all lanes

were cleared northbound coming into oakland. much better news. if you saw the reports last night, i showed you a live backup. i put it on facebook. the live look past the coliseum is a very nice, easy drive. the flashlights at the top of the screen have been rolling past the coliseum. the maintenance crew is clearing lanes further knot. no problems knot of high street. we'll follow this but no big deal right now. good to know. there's a big deal in the east bay commute if you take the ace train. it is canceled because of a landslide that brought service to a screeching halt last night. "today in the east bay's" christie smith is live this pleasanton this morning. >> reporter: no one is here but us, and the message boards out here say it all this morning. there will be no service today due to mud and rock slide through niles can i don't know, there's mud and debris on the tracks and the trains are not moving until the rails are

cleared out. ace has three trains that run from stockton to san jose in the morning and three that run back in the afternoon. commuters who were stuck in san jose yesterday got other means of transportation home, like a bus or a taxi. when the trains will be cleared, they are not exactly sure. they don't know, but it is believed there's mud, rocks, water and trees blocking everything. so that's going to have to be cleared out before anything can happen. no bus bridge today either. ace trains tentatively are expected to run monday morning. of course, call ahead for that as well. reporting live in pleasanton, christie smith, "today in the east bay." thank you. rock and mudslides are causing problems near big sur as well. highway 1 almost 40 miles cut off near state park at king city and cambria. highway 46 that leads into the town of big sur is also closed.

the slides added to damage done last week when a part of highway 1 in the same area collapsed. there is no word on when it will reopen. in the east bay flooding as well. neighbors in the contra costa county town of clive are cleaning up after their streets became waterways. yeah, that's a street. cheryl hurd takes us around the east bay to see what people are waking up to this morning. >> reporter: floodwaters got so high on fort chicago highway in the small town of clive that the road was closed. the water so dangerously high that contra costa county sheriff deputy drove some people to their homes in four-wheel drive vehicles. on the other side of the county in martinez people watched el hambra creek rise while those downtown put out water bags just in case. >> the streets were pretty full, but i wasn't too worried until we got an alert from the police

department. about 4:00 i put bags out. >> reporter: in the oakland hills pg&e crews working overtime to restore power after a giant tree toppled over ripping down power lines. >> the tree came down literally right next to the house and did not even break any windows. >> reporter: he was lucky. usgs officials are working on a monitoring system that shows that the ground is oversaturated meaning huge trees can fall over at any time and the ground is ripe for a mud slide. >> we see a lot of trees falling over around here, but, you know, it is just a way of life. we have earthquakes, we have high fire dangers out here, and we have trees that fall over and knock out our power from time to time. >> elsewhere in the oakland hills streets turned into rivers. nonstop rain caused soggy slopes to come sliding down. shepherd canyon had muddy waters

sweep this car down the road and the driver had to be helped to safety. further south people picking up the pieces after massive amounts of rain caused mudslides in santa cruz in the mountain there is. rushing water also turning roads into rivers. you can see the river of water on graham hill road in sonoma county. a man is lucky to be alive there in morning after the roof of his monte rio home stopped a giant tree from landing on his head. the man went out to investigate just as the tree came down. also in sonoma county a tree took out an entire neighborhood's power supply when it landed on power lines. in san jose a rush hour rescue on 87. a driver spotted a man in the fast-moving guadeloupe river. he saw the man clinging to a tree in the river, called for help and rescue crews searched the frigid water.

they found the man even further down the river. the victim had been in the water for more than three hours by the time he was boated back to safety. no word on how he ended up in the river, but it is a reminder how fast and cold the local waterways are during the storm. stay away. the man who confessed to killing chauncey bailey will be back on the stand monday. the man is testifying for the prosecution against two others accused in the crime. those men are you receive bay iv and antoine mackey. the case against them hinges on brussard's credibility. he testified that your black muslim bakery was a violent military-like organization. a popular oakland jazz club will reopen tonight after one of the musical engineers went on a rampage inside of it. police say the musical engineer destroyed equipment at yoshi's with a baseball bat yesterday

morning. he also damaged dressing rooms and the office and performance areas. police arrested him for felony vandalism. he caused $10,000 in damage. the rampage stemmed from a dispute between music engineers and performers on wednesday night. all right. all the equipment is in good working order here, including the radar as you can see. good morning, christina. >> yes, this is one of the mornings you want the radar to work. we can show you exactly where the spotty showers are. we are not seeing a complete green radar this morning like we started out with yesterday. so we are already better off in that department. now, we still have a lot of the aftermath from the heavy rain that came down yesterday. a lot of the ponding hasn't had the opportunity to clear out because the spotty activity continued overnight, but we are noticing a bit of improvement on the way for the weekend. we'll get a pretty nice saturday and a pretty nice sunday. as we see the showers continue to move probably off to the east heading throughout the morning, they will become more steady this evening. we are expecting some pretty good rain to come down

overnight, but this is the last system we have to get through before high pressure sets back up bringing us some spring-like weather, which we have been waiting for since the start of spring. as you can see here, this is what we are expecting. by 6:00 p.m. this front starts to come through. the rain will become more steady. it is nothing like we saw yesterday where we are expecting another half inch, maybe three quarters an inch in the places with the most rain up in the north bay. this is all going to clear out of here early saturday morning. in fact, by 2:00 p.m., nice and clear. today, not all that warm. you'll need the jacket and the umbrella, but i think you can keep the windshield wipers maybe on the slow to moderate range. what do you think, mike? i hope so, but i'm sticking with you for the reports, christina. you were right on yesterday. i'll stick to hear the weather-related slowing through livermore. we had a lot of rain, but the big issue through the area, one of them is the ace train. christie smith just gave the report near the pleasanton station. the mud and water across the tracks through the pleasanton area has canceled all trains.

no ace train. this is a relay report. if you have friends taking the ace train into the area, call them to let them know to get on the road. that will present more traffic for 580. further south coming through the fremont area we have an accident going on near the side of the road at northbound 880 at auto mall parkway. there's no slowing past the scene. it sounds like things are moving off to the shoulder, but we are watching for that same area that was a huge headache yesterday afternoon as the rain kicked in. so noelle grade got slow pushing it near 880. very slow past the mission grade, but we'll follow it closely this morning. it is 4:40. she survived the earthquake and tsunami in japan and is telling her story. meet the bay area woman and her incredible story of survival. plus a big bump in the road for your tahoe getaway this weekend. you are looking at live pictures of 880 in oakland. we continue to monitor the roads. it will be a crazy friday.

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it is 4:43. it is all kind of wet out there. be careful. more people have evacuated near the fukushima power plant. people have been living in the

zone where they have been told to stay indoors 18 miles from the plant, and now they should leave. the announcement comes after officials at the plant say one of the complex's nuclear reactors may have been breached. that could mean more serious radioactive contamination. meanwhile, new numbers are rolling in. new estimates put the price tag at $300 billion. that's nearly four times what hurricane katrina cost here in this country. meanwhile, the death toll continues to climb. more than 10,000 people are now confirmed dead. more than 17,400 are missing. the japanese government says it is once again safe for babies to drink the water after radiation was found in the tokyo water supply. this as rad yoi owe active steam continues to rise above the nuclear power plant 150 miles away. a south bay nearly torn apart by the disaster in japan reunited with the help of an nbc news crew. >> i found your sister, here she is. >> oh, my god. >> hi, sis!

>> oh, my god, kim! is that you? >> yeah, i'm totally okay. >> we lost her but -- she's okay. >> we have been following this story since the earthquake and tsunami happened in japan. her family had no way of knowing she was alive. all the phone lines are down. this morning we hear from the woman who just got back from japan. garvin thomas has the story. >> reporter: scientists tell us the earthquake last week was so strong it shifted the earth axis six inches. we can tell you it also turned this san jose home upside down. >> oh, yeah, absolutely. yeah. >> reporter: for three days after the earthquake and tsunami, these two women worried about what happened to their daughter and sister, cannon purdy. >> i didn't know where she was. i didn't know where she was supposed to be. >> reporter: what little they did know didn't help. they knew purdy on her way to india stopped over in japan to visit a school where she used to

teach english to japanese children. that school was here, that's this place. >> the footage then was pinpointed down to this is exactly where she is. and the place was completely devastated. >> everything. everything in the entire town was gone. >> reporter: her family didn't know it at the time, of course, but cannon purdy was alive and well and watching the very same things her sister was, just not on tv. >> it was hard to really think of anything. it was just kind of overwhelming. i mean, because i saw it i know it happened, but it still doesn't seem real. like that much water in, like, it just doesn't seem real. >> reporter: purdy knew her family would be worried back home but with no electricity in the whole region getting word out from inside japan was impossible. >> there's also a page maintained by the red cross. >> reporter: it was close to impossible from outside as well. purdy's family home became

mission control for the long-distance search. watching the news, working the phones and hitting the social networks. megan saw ann curry was in the region so she sent her a tweet asking her to look for her sister, and guess what, that's just what she did. >> are you cannon? >> this american woman walked up to me and said hi, are you cannon? i said, yes. she said, your sister, megan, contacted me and is trying to find you. so that was a big relief, kind of amazing to hear my sister's name. >> reporter: and one moment later a reunion via satellite phone. >> i found your sister, here she is. >> oh, many i god. >> hi, sis. >> oh my god, cannon. is that you? >> yeah, i'm totally okay. >> so quickly before i knew i was talking to ann curry and before i had to chance to say ann curry i admire you and your coverage of the situation? japan, she put my sister on the phone. it was three heartbeats and

there she was. it was incredible. >> reporter: purdy arrived back in san jose yesterday staying staying she is in shock over the whole experience. purdy says she admires the strength of the japanese people. and happy she is to be back home, she's planning a return looking forward to help in the recovery. garvin thomas, "today in the east bay." >> purdy and her family set up a foundation to raise money for the relief effort. if you would like to help, go to this website here, savemyagi.org. let's go to nicole lapin now with more from cnbc headquarters this morning. >> reporter: wall street could carry over yesterday's big gains. futures are higher as investors are shrugging off all the bad news. europe's debt problems, unrest

in the middle east, they are focusing on earnings and economic growth prospects. oil is still stuck in the same range around $105 a barrel. we are watching that, but europe is higher right now, asia rose overnight, so we could get some of the trickle over as well but we have our own economic data stateside on consumer sentiment and a final look at fourth-quarter gdp earnings, basically how much the economy grew last fall. the dow rose 84 points to 12,170. the nasdaq composite added 38 to 2736. also making headlines this morning, the nation's largest more garage providers reportedly have been asked by regulators to consider a cash for keys program to encourage a delinquent bor w borrower to get out of their home. this is part of a broader government plan to solve the foreclosure mess. under the program banks would basically pay boor roarers more than 90 days behind on their more garages more garages to

give them a fresh start. more and more hotels are putting healthier items on the menus so you can eat better on the road. hilton will feature a low-calorie low-fat breakfast option at all their hotels by the end of april. the luxury chain is also offering a three-course meal, scott, that doesn't top 500 calories. so everything is made without flour, without butter, without cream, without -- >> and you are on vacation? >> right, exactly. >> i don't see the point. no, i say. >> that's what i say, too. >> nicole, thank you very much. we'll turn to christina. she has a busy day ahead of her. >> whatever you decide to have for breakfast, make sure you have your coffee this morning. we have pretty dangerous conditions with all the rain we picked up yesterday. more rain is streaming in from the pacific this morning. you want to take it easy out there, especially if you have to get the little ones to school. as you can see right now, the east bay is getting the brunt of

what's coming through right now. oakland had a good cell pass through, you'll find slick condition there is. this will be the case throughout the day today as you see spotty activity, not the heavy, steady rain that moved through yesterday. and we'll get a bit of a break over the weekend. that scenario keeps shaping up better and better every time i check. as you can see right now at 9:00 a.m., just a little bit of spotty activity. the rain will become more steady as we head through this evening, but the good news is we'll see some sunshine today. a little bit of sunshine, breaks through the clouds, and, hey, we want the vitamin d. as you can see at 6:00 p.m. we'll get a little more rain coming through here. that will linger until 6:00 a.m. saturday. so the rain is going to come down overnight while you are sleeping. then you'll get a pretty nice saturday around here. good news, a lot of people want the sun. 56 degrees in oakland today. 55 in concord. 55 degrees in livermore. and here it is, your weekend outlook. not looking so bad. take a look at the end of this extended forecast. we are talking about temperatures at 69 degrees by wednesday.

71 by thursday. so if you can hold on, we've got so much better weather on the way. a pretty nice saturday and sunday. you'll be able to make outdoor plans for both days. it is just going to be a little muddy if you'll be outside because the grounds are saturated, scott sh as you know. >> or possibly steamy. it is just going to all evaporate. thank you much. coming up, the snow in the sierra is taking a toll on roads and homes. we'll have the latest from there. 580 isooki pretty clear, but we are not done with the effects of this weather. your traffic is coming up. s

it is 4:55. you are looking at the path to lake tahoe. it will be a challenge today. a storm there dumping so much snow that highway 80 is shut down. highway 50 is open with chains required. people worrying that all the snow could cause the roofs and cabins and homes to cave in. traveling dangerous yesterday with drifting snow, whiteout conditions and a small avalanche. and veteran drivers say it is just about as bad as it ever got. >> awful. awful. really bad. go home. go home. go somewhere and get off the hill. >> heavy snow also causing worries about propane lines breaking. all right. we'll check in with what's going on later on "today in the bay."

there's marla tellez. >> good morning to you. we are keeping an eye on the situation in santa cruz county. hundreds of people had to evacuate their homes because of concerns about the rising water. and the san lorenzo river is causing problems. we'll have an update on the situation. lake county is expected to reach flood stage later this morning. we are keeping an eye on that as well. also, an unusual way to help the spca and how the "today in the bay" bracket challenge is shaping up this morning. it appears brent may still have the bragging rights but christina's picks are looking good. i'm so sorry to tell you all this, scott. this means yours probably aren't looking so good. >> it is not over, right? >> no, you still have some time. >> it is not over. thank you, marla. mike, it ain't over. well, ucla was over a while ago, but it is not over until it is over. neither are the effects of the rain. we have flooding marked on the map. through niles we have a lot of water on the roadway, but

highway 84 has reopened. portions through the niles area are closed so keep that in mind because of mud and rock. we have an accident brewing out here near northbound 880 but no planes lanes are blocked. a smooth drive right now. a live look shows the san mateo bridge. we'll end with this shot and a wind advisory for the san mateo bridge, but it is not looking so bad right now. there's more, i have it coming up. i'm sorry, i didn't mean right now. all right. coming up, when mike does his traffic in the east bayngs,orki aey wngkio to reel in a prestigious national lab. they are pulling out all the stops. versus toyota. which is better?

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