we have breaking news at this hour. a former contractor that has spent the last five years in a prison has been released. eventually he was sentenced to 15 years but this morning nbc news confirmed he is on a flight back to the united states. let's turn to andrea mitchell chief foreign affairs correspondent. what can you tell us about the circumstances of his release?

>> he is on a and headed to andrews air force base and expected to land in three hours. allen gross was arrested for bringing equipment into cuba that the cubans say was illegal. he was convicted and jailed and from maryland and will be returning home and may make a statement after he lands they are american -- first of all, u.s. senators, pat leahy, senator udall, senator, bipartisan actively involved may be on the plane, may be getting him out of cuban prison. key to this also is the fate of three cubans who were convicted and in jail for 15 years in prison, federal prisons in the united states. convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. the cubans have long thought that they could not get fair trials and well may have been a

prisoner swap, in exchange for allen gross. there is a bartter policy issue. we expect that, as soon as later today, the president may be going, agresing this publicly and saying they are suspending the terror designation against cuba. we're heard kerry others praising their fight against ebola in africa. a huge obstacle to loosening economic sanctions. embargo written into law, that would be up to congress, but a lot that president obama and can announce and is eager to change cuban-american policy. this is key to the breakthrough, allen coming home. >> the relations between the broader policy of cuba and the united states. his health, lost a lot of weight, staged hunger strikes in prison. we've been told he's all right, but they are not putting him drktly into the hospital.

his health an issue, threatened another hunger strike, past five years. releasing him on hanukkah, first day of hanukkah. >> you'll have much more. more on nbcnews.com and msnbc. most return to the "today" show. i'm savannah guthrie in washington. this has been a nbc news special report. >> we return to your local news. very good wednesday morning to you, thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock on this wednesday. we'll start right now with a live look outside your window. bay bridge on left-hand side, san jose on your right. of course it's been a wet commute, for people, as it has been all week. monstering storms in and out. we are not done yet. live look at radar. things calm for the time being. but this is going to pick up again. more activity before the day is

through. heavy rain approaching the area. >> it's very tough. the ground has been saturated. right now, "today in the bay's" stephanie chuang, live this morning from marin county, leaders issued a state of emergency because of the storm damage. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. rain kicks back up around 5:30, lasted for 20 minutes. it's mostly a break to today and rain has stopped. you can see why drivers have to be cautious. by tamalpais high school miller avenue, i don't know if you saw that, a lot of water splashing up. one lane closed because of flooding. it's not just water shutting down roads. putting up barricades to make sure drivers don't through the southern end. a tree took down the hill and spilled on the road, shut down for the rest of the day. concern about what more rain might do to highway 1, where a portion of south bound lane

highway 1 slipped away last week. that said to be shut down for the first couple of months next year. an alternate route washed out and down to single lane in one spot. >> this is our only way, really, in and out because without this, we'd have to go all way to stenson beach and there's no guarantee if this collapses, the highway wouldn't collapse. >> reporter: on the tiburon peninsula yesterday, firefighters responding to a report of mud to the back of the house. a pool caught most of the mudslide. the bit that did slip by broke a window. north bay creeks flowing strong. no threats to properties. but more rain on the way, of course a big concern. stephanie chuang, "today in the bay." >> keep a close eye on that. thank you. let's bring in kris sanchez, life in santa clara where a huge tree came crashing down, missing

an apartment complex. >> the kind of thing that we've seen on a couple of occasions this week. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. i think you said that we've seen this before, certainly we have. this is not the biggest one that we've seen. but it gibbs you an indication of how bad things could go and how easily that could happen. this tree fell parallel to the sidewalk. but if it had fallen perpendicular it would have smashed on to that residence behind. to make things worse, right near the root base, where it goes into the ground, there were gas meters within inches. so if those had gone when the tree fell, it certainly would have been a different situation. it was -- does not sound like there was anybody injured here. but we've been talking about this for a while. ground is saturated because of all the recent rains. arborists tell us the trees are thirsty because of the drought. absorbing a large amount of water in a short amount of time, makes them heavy and vulnerable.

not far from here, last week, another tree, massive one, nearly five feet in diameter, 200 years old. come on to the rooftop of a home and it smashed an suv as well. that took hours for crews to take down. at some point they had to do that work branch by branch because of the massive size. those one here in santa clara won't take as long, once crews get here. those crews are in high demand these days. there are lots trees down, not all as big as one that we have here behind us or the one that we showed you earlier. but it ties up crews and crews are working as fast as they can. yet the rain continues to fall. we thought we were going to get a break this morning but the rain's falling. certainly ground doesn't have a lot of time to absorb all of that rain. santa clara, kris sanchez, "today in the bay." >> a rock and a hard place, you need it but it's tough, nowhere to foe. >> can be dangerous as well as kris pointed out.

she does not have an umbrella. she's staying dry for the time being. >> i know what to get her for christmas. >> everybody wants an umbrella. we did a bad gift list yesterday. time to check the forecast. first a live look outside from the san bruno mountaintops. looks clear from this perspective. christina's radar still active now. find out what's going on. >> good morning to you. yeah, the radar has been overworked over the past 17 days. every single day this month we've had rain chances with the exclusion of three to four days. as we continue into the week, we keep rain chances going. they get slimmer and slimmer after friday. i've got to tell you, still looking good for another round of storms for the first week of january. we're going to get hit today. we'll see a nice break tomorrow. over the weekend stay mostly dry. and then, yeah, looking good for all of the week of christmas before the storm window swings back open for the first week of

january. here's the deal for today. we'll see chilly temperatures. and the rain is going to intensify as we head throughout the afternoon. want to make sure you're aware of stop the clock at 1:00 p.m. that's when the heavy stuff starts to move in, widespread, heavy downpours across the bay area. i continue this by 8:00, a lot of activity out there. but it won't be as widespread. won't be as steady than will continue until midnight. then a good break as we head throughout thursday. 50s for today. another potent storm system on the way as we head throughout friday. next week, it's looking mostly dry for everybody trying to get those christmas plans together. and, yeah, next thursday, kiddos get a new bike they'll be able to get out and ride it. finally a dry break. we have to wait until next week. more on the forecast. ta tahoe snow coming up. >> bike might be better traveling south through sunol.

repeat from monday. southbound, yes, slow here. jammed up out of sunol and into fremont. again southbound 680 and vargas a big rig blocking two left lanes. look at your map. what happened reports that the rig originally hit center divide but ended up in the same jackknifed position. waiting for the right tow truck to get there there was a problem for the first one. the second one stuck in the jam out of soonle and pleasanton and into the area. that's a slower drive. now seeing the build, folks out of the tri-valley but lighter volume over all even for 850 saving the early commute. we will track that. we have no idea when the tow will clear than north 101 big red blotches there. as you traveled north of story road. live look shows you reason why. orange, the volume simmering down. golden gate bridge slowing because of drops on the lens impeding our view.

where's golden gate bridge? it's there. the smooth drive and slick roadways. north bay seeing rain. just watch. >> start of "family affair." >> it does. mr. french. >> 6:10. the threat of mudslides forces hundreds from their homes in southern california overnight. plus you get paid in money but some wish they got paid in ugly chairs, i'll explain.

very good wednesday morning to you. 6:13. a look at today's top stories. crews will be out cutting up a tall tree that fell outside an apartment complex in santa clara. the recent downpours likely loosened the dirt around the roots, causing it to tumble. mudslides a concern this morning. more than 100 people woken up by knocks at their door ventura.

crews escorted people out of 124 homes in camarillo springs because of a threat of a mudslide. they've been allowed to return to their homes. police have arrested two co-founders in 12 former employees of the massachusetts pharmacy blamed for a meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people. tainted steroids blame for the 2012 outbreak manufactured by the new england compounding center. officials will release exact chargers today. a currency that caused all kinds of news in 2014, absolutely collapsing. >> scott mcgrew, you say the worst investment you could have made all year. >> that's right. let's take a look at a chart. i have charts. huge run-up, talk in the news, there's a lot of buzz and a collapse. you are thinking the ruble, right? this is actually bitcoin which your commentator said was a dumb idea a year ago.

turns out this was a dumb idea. if you bought this at the highs, it, not the ruble, was the worst investment of 2014. you know when you're making the ruble look good you've got problems. talk about the ruble. it's worth so little and fluctuating so badly, russians are flooding stores to buy things with their rubles. a shopping spree, ikea open until 2:00 a.m. in moscow selling things leak this chair. it's an ugly chair but worth something. worth one chair. today 3,000 rubles. but say you get paid 3,000 rubles today. today it's worth one chair. yesterday it would have bought you a book case. tomorrow it's only going to buy you a plastic colander they sell in the basement. people are buying whatever chairs. for instance, iphones. let's talk about that. from the company's perspective, a nightmare, too. total nightmare for apple. iphone cost 50,000 rubles today.

but yesterday it cost about 45,000 rubles, six months ago it was 20,000 ruble. even if you change your prices every single day, you're going to lose out if you're apple because the ruble you made yesterday is worth less today which is why, by the way, apple is no longer selling products in russia. it's why when you hear about companies talking bitcoin, that's a bit of a misnomer. bitcoin, they turn that bitcoin back into a dollar because a dollar is stable. rubles and bitcoins, not so much. >> i feel like i got an economic lesson there, scott. >> i'm going to track that chair price, that ugly chair price see it in a week. >> someone probably likes that chair. >> that somewhat ugly chair. >> very interesting. it's time to check the microclimate forecast right now. tack a peek outside. here's look at the bay bridge from the emeryville vantage

point this morning. >> it's clear right now. weighing options this week. christmas presents perhaps. i don't think that red ikea chair is on your wish list. >> you never know. the wife loves the chairs in the home but when the husband gets to pick that one, that comfortable one, that's it. then there's that, too. 6:17. i do not love my husband's favorite chair, i'll put that out there right here and right now. throughout the day today, you might want to post up indoors. more rain coming your way. and at this point it is starting to ramp up a bit. south bay, starting to get moderate rainfall. this is still very spotty. we're going to see that complete green steady rain move in as we head throughout the second half of your day. not expecting as much yellow and orange embedded in the green. showers won't be quite as intense as yesterday. still strong, though. i stop that clock at 1:00 p.m. you can see widespread rainfall. rich moisture coming through

across the board and that will continue to 8:00, 9:00. another waesh of moisture comes through. as we head throughout the morning, this is going to provide more snowfall to a place that is just going it in droves. talking about tahoe. talking about one of the best ski seasons according to resorts and snowboarders up there so far that we've had in over ten years. we're just getting this thing going. not only getting snowfall we need, technology for snow making has improved so much that it is just powder. almost champagne powder. 55 on the peninsula. 56 on the east shore today. and 55 degrees in san francisco. temperatures are going to creep up for tomorrow. we'll get some sunshine. it's going to be nice here. friday another storm system impacting the north bay. saturday looks good for a dry break. weak system impacting

san francisco, north bay sunday. next week looks dry as we meet back here christmas week. thursday looking good if you want to get outdoors. at noon 63. maybe a little spotty shower activity at that point. not expecting much. check your drive, mike. >> bay bridge toll plaza where we have lanes filled and wet roads showing up, sheen and puddling in the parking lot. that's what's evident here. we have a pleasanton drive down the east shore freeway, lightly populated and lighter off of 24 after an earlier crash. slowing to the maze. north 880 around the bend, things were slow for a second and cleared up. as we look at rest of the bay, north bay, no problem for the upper east shore. patches of flooding, surface streets left over from overnight rain as well. so far freeways moving smoothly. eastbound 37. there's a crash there. as approaching the bridge, be careful. no big deal or than that through

that portion of the bay. we have a build for the castro valley y. lighter than normal volume here tri-valley, a bigger issue. west 580 not bad. lightly populated but folks are feeding into pleasanton where you're jamming up toward andratti a crash and backup created by the jackknifed big rig. similar to what happened monday. tow truck trying to get there. it's the same shot as we saw before. things are jammed up through the area. and this hov smoothly past the golf course. once you get to the scene, that is one of two lanes blocked. talking about the commute through the south bay. slowdown because of the crash at story cleared. crash at oakland, that hasn't been a big deal. 87 light volume. easy south bay commute. good stuff. back to you. >> lines of traffic out there. happening now, lines of a different sort. lining up outside of glide

memorial church in san francisco hoping to take advantage of a very generous holiday tradition. >> if there's any question there is a need this holiday season, here's your answer. "today in the bay's" bob redell live with more on a grocery bag giveaway. last time we checked in, line out the door for blocks. look like you're inside now. >> right. good morning to you, sam and laura. inside glide memorial methodist church in san francisco. the room packing and organizing grocery bags. echb waiting in line will get a bag filled with oranges, i see green beans, ramen, reeice, bre, things to put together a good holiday meal. on top of that poultry. people want to the turkey. they have a limited number. at least a chicken if they don't get a turkey. take a look at line. a line started yesterday. this is very popular tradition here and people know if you want

the to get the turkey, you got to get here early. a line of several hundred people down ellis, on the side of the church, waiting for the distribution, still about an hour and ten minutes out, around 7:30 they're going to start handing out these bags. these are going to be their meal for the holiday. >> it gives me something extra. i'm thankful for it. >> reporter: this is what we believe to be the 32nd year that reverend cecil williams and his church have been giving out grocery bags during holidays. they have enough for 5,000 people. so 5,000 bags. hope is that they'll be able to meet demand. though in years past they have run out. it's hard to tell whether or not it will be the case this year. live here in san francisco, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> a lot of hungry mouths will

be fed. a great thing. thank you. 6:22. butmpy and dangerous ride o hundreds aboard a flight bound for dallas. turbulence sends several people to hospital. (vo) nourished. rescued. protected. given new hope. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too.

because when you take home a new subaru, we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

6:25, 15 people are recovering from minor injury after an american airlines jet, bound for dallas, encountered

severe turbulence after taking off from south korea. the plane was bouncing up and down. we're told it went on for nearly an hour. plates, glasses, beverage kartz tossed around the. the flight was diverted to japan so those hurt could be treated. rest of the passengers expected to arrive in dallas in 90 minutes. the wait will be over soon. next month, if you can hold on, whether san francisco will be the u.s. city vying for the 2024 olympic games. during a meeting yesterday, all four u.s. cities competing for that honor, san francisco, los angeles, washington, d.c., and boston, put forward their best pitches to the u.s. olympic committee than committee has to spend the next several weeks evaluating, deliberating before announcing which city gets to officially bid for the games. that city then will take its plan to the international olympic committee, and that body will choose the host city in

2017. >> 6:26. update, after five years in prison, cuba releases an american prisoner. dark day in history. pakistan mourning the death of more than 130 kids killed by the taliban brutally. how the u.s. is responding this morning.

>> in aftermath of a horrific attack, 142, mostly children, killed by taliban in pakistan, how the u.s. is lending support to the grieving country. more rain on the way today. microclimate weather alert. that activity ramping up as we speak. gray skies by tomorrow. a bit of a break and another heavy round move through friday, only for some parts of the bay area. clear skies for the weekend. how long that will last in your microclimate forecast on your way. >> south bound 680 repeat performance from monday, almost

identical spot, a jackknifed big rig, backup for the tri-valley coming up. when you track ups and downs and ups and downs of the dow yesterday it moved 700 points. what will it do today? there's the nyse. on the nasdaq as well, there's the opening bell. a live look outside. overlooking south bay, san jose this morning. you made it halfway through your workweek, wednesday december 17th. this is "today in the bay." >> announcer: from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." >> very good morning to you. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock. we begin right now with breaking news. an american imprisoned in cuba for the last five years is now on his way back to the u.s. alan gross, you see him here, a contractor who was jailed in cuba on espionage charges. in exchange for gross' return, three cubans, jailed in the u.s., will be released.

president obama expected to talk about that exchange coming up in a few hours. pakistan mourning the deaths of 142 people, most children, killed when taliban gunmen stormed an army public school. the "today in the bay's" tracie potts joins us from washington, d.c. with more on how the u.s. is responding. good morning. >> the u.s. is going to help them track them down but we don't specifically what that means. the white house will provide counterterrorism help but we don't have details on what that means. we know we're pulling troops out of the region out of afghanistan, they confirmed that's on track. not talking about sending more troops in to assist with this. also, new video that shows what was going on inside that school when the horrific attack happened. no people in the video, but just images are disturb, bullet holes in classrooms, you can see where kids were sitting, for eight hours while the siege went on,

military tried to rescue them. secretary of state kerry says, the loss of 142 people now, most of them children, is the world's loss. president obama, in a statement, called it depravity of terrorists and led to all of this. now in a region unstable, the pakistani army chief headed to afghanistan to talk to leaders about how they can deal with the taliban at their border. >> now seeing faces of the children this morning. so tragic. thank you. somber day for the world right now. 6:32 on wednesday morning. a quick look outside. that of course, the bay bridge, in a patch of time we're not seeing downfalls of water. that's a good thing now. but there will be more to come. >> that's right. dry out the umbrella for the moment. let's check in with christina with a look at forecast. >> we can't get out of the rainy pattern. i can tell you there is an end in sight. next week overall looking mostly

dry. but we've got more rain to get through between today, tomorrow, looks good, and then friday. another system comes through. finally we will get prolonged period of dry weather. month of december, one for the history books. in case you're joining us, i'm going to tell you which city hit 120-year record. 120-year record, that's coming up for the month of december. as you can see, light showers across the bay area. for the most part a good patch moving over san jose. so you can see that yellow, orange, getting brief, heavy downpours. we head throughout the day today, not expecting the rich, steady moisture to be widespread across the bay area until 1:00 p.m. but then once it comes in we'll be in the thick of it until 9:00 p.m. tonight. finally, starting to see showers break apart. as we head through midnight, when we meet back here, same deal, light, spotty activity. by tomorrow afternoon, you're

going to get ample opportunity to get outdoors without dodging showers. but that won't last long come friday. another system rolls through. a lot to go over in your full forecast which is moments away. temps in the 50s today. chilly. fog at the coast. and a lot of places, up in the north bay, have not had an opportunity to dry out so take it easy. mike inouye. >> i want to show southbound 680, talk about what i've been looking for seconds ago, looking for this incident in the chp report. we have this jam here southbound with taillights through sunol and into fremont. out of pleasanton actually. look at your maps. this is because of the crash, one like this on monday, two left lanes blocked at vargas on the southbound commute. another crack in the backup. looking for the crash itself, in the chp report it looks like it just disappeared. sometimes it happens after a refresh, sometimes because they cleared the incident without fur

details. look at backup through pleasanton. more building as folks kol off of west 580 out of dublin and livermore. no major issues. free throw of traffic through pleasanton south 680. use some of the front age road but was that will take you to the bottleneck near vargas. we see slowing at castro valley y and hayward. big view for the of the san mateo bridge here, easy drive towards san francisco, oakland, bay bridge. slick roads continue. south of the dumbarton bridge, smoother drive. crash south 880 moved to the shoulder. typical build of the dumbarton bridge. south bay, northbound routes build. earlier crash north 87 in the middle of the bottom of the screen cleared to the shoulder. look at palo alto, 101, along the peninsula, slick roadways, sheen and company here for 101. basically at the limit in toward san mateo and towards

san francisco. great news as far as the morning flow of traffic. the phlegm problem 680 and sunol, exactly the same spot as monday. >> thank you. 6:35. volatility the flame of the game in the stock markets. open for a few minutes. >> yesterday the number up, down, all over the place. scott mcgrew. >> good morning. up for now. check the big board and see how fast that up in's going to move. 62 to the positive. i wouldn't be surprised up a hundred, down a hundred in the next hour. tesla down significantly, after morgan stanley said it was going to cut sales forecasts because of low gasoline prices. now, speaking of low prices, consumer price index came out, boy, are they down. things that we are paying for, costing less. now gasoline is in there, but it's the biggest drop in six years for last month. gasoline included in that. we're not talking about core

inflation. but paying a lot less a lot of places which is good news. >> for consumers. >> less money for gas could mean more money for presents. >> more people traveling as well. 6:36. headed back to the hot zone. adoctor who survived ebola will be on his way back to liberia. >> closer to the bay in the bay, live look at san bruno mountaintops. the start of your wednesday, midway through your workweek as laura mentioned. more news to come on the latest weather front, news in your community, we'll be right back.

there's a legacy at raley's about having the best meat and the best produce. it's my job to start a new legacy, the best wine beer and spirits. we travel all over california and the world to find all sorts of new craft spirits, craft beers, small production wines. ♪ brews from mendocino, and the finest wines from around the world. at raley's, we're really into craft, so we enjoy and are excited about carrying those products in the store. ♪ share your ideas, tell us on facebook.

australian security forces trying to figure out why the man behind the week's deadly hostage situation in sydney was recently dropped from a terror watch list. monis was being monitored a few years ago because he sent a series of offensive letters to the families of dead australian soldiers. earlier this week, he held 17 people hostage inside of a cafe for 16 hours, report lid shooting and killing the manager of the cafe when he tried to wrestle the gun away. monis and another hostage were killed when police moved in. a doctor who survived ebola will return to liberia to helicopter west africa fight off the virus. he feels great, plans to return to liberia next month.

he'll spend a month at a clinic outside monrovia. flown home to the u.s., spent several weeks recovering in a nebraska hospital. he says he's immune to ebola which now has no vaccine. >> can employers refuse to hire somebody because he or she chooses to smoke? that's the question for debate in arizona county, pima county is paying $13 million a year to cover health care expenses of employees who smoke in response, leaders putting an end to anybody who uses nicotine, using tobacco products and vapes. those who use it could see insurance jump 30%. next, happening now, dozens lining up hoping for help this holiday season.

live to san francisco to show you. enjoy that brief time of no rain while it's here. but it's coming back again. more rain brings more damage. trees toppling. hillsides crumbling now. a lot of concern on that front. two more storms headed this way. it can make a tough commute. live look outside. this is the rain covering our own lens at golden gate bridge. mike's got a look at the commute. christina keeping tabs on the forecast.

15 minutes of continuous news, weather and traffic on "today in the bay". >> 6:44 on your wednesday. right now, a time to check microclimate forecast as we take

a live look at real-time doppler radar. you see spots of green, modest activity out there. some lingering showers moving across the bay area now. but more rain coming, heavier rain in just a matter of hours. >> that has a lot of people on edge because of things like this. take a look. yesterday's heavy rain brought down this massive tree in the south bay, just missing an apartment building. >> "today in the bay's" kris sanchez joining us the apartment complex on burbank drive in santa clara. residents are quite shaken still. >> reporter: yeah. good news is that nobody was hurt here. though it's dark still, you can see how close that tree came to smashing into the homes right behind it. the tree fell in the same direction as the sidewalk, had it fallen in the other direction, in perpendicular, it would have been a disaster. could have fallen on top of the trees. another crisis averted. that tree trunk near a number of

gas meters and had the tree fallen in that direction, that could have been a different kind of disaster altogether. the tree came down, likely, because the ground is rather saturated because of all of the rain. we've talked to arborists in recent days and they've told us not only roots no the as stable as they should be, trees are thirsty, taking in a lot of water making for heavy trunks and branches. and the trees are not as stable. one viewer pointed out also, this pine tree seems to have a lot of brown needles. perhaps not the healthy evidence tree and more vulnerable. not far from last week, a massive oak, five feet in diameter, 200 years old, came down on top of a home there and suv. that took hours for crews to take down. some points they had to do that work with a cherry picker, taking down branch by branch. this is not likely going to take as long because the tree is

small. but the work may not take long. waiting for the work crew may take a while. their work and labors are in high demand, as you might imagine. santa clara, kris sanchez, "today in the bay." >> another incident of tree toppling over there. thank you for that. >> mudslides, another big problem. "today in the bay's" stephanie chuang from mill valley, marin county in the state of emergency. >> reporter: that's right. good morning. a lot of wet weather from last week and yesterday adding to what's on the roads from today. you can see that it is not raining right now but here along miller avenue near tamalpais high school people cannot get through one lane here. the ground is saturated. that's why there is more concern that water, more water, could trigger movement of a mudslide. crews put in concrete barricade to make sure drivers don't go through the southern end. a mudslide took down oak trees,

spilled on to the roadway, set to be shut down for the rest of today. in marin county, when there's wet weather there's worry about damage to homes. in tiburon, firefighters responded to a call of mud into the back of a house on venotto drive. >> swimming pool that caught the majority of the slide. a little went beyond the swimming pool, broke one window. >> reporter: along highway 1, from panoramic, southbound road portions slipped away. repairs continue to for the next company of months. it's been sprinkling on and off. eyes on creeks like the one nearby. so far no threat to damaging property nearby. as wet weather continues, eyes will continue to be on the creeks like the one nearby.

stephanie chuang, "today in the bay." >> we'll have a doctor eyeing your throat later, too. tea and honey in the works for you. >> it's tough because there's been so much rain on and off. conditions where people start to get sick. take a look outside now at the bay bridge and the blue morning lights. christina, seeing this back and forth pattern. again, we continue with the same thing later this week. >> it's tough. pets don't like going outdoors, too. >> so right. >> not go out. >> finally. finally this weekend they'll have an opportunity to get out there. i've got to tell you, has been a tough month so far when it comes to rainfall. people who drive for a living, work outdoor for a living, you know what i'm talking about. today another round of heavy rain. there is light at the end of the tunnel, talking about sunlight. but that doesn't come in until next week. a prolonged period of dry weather but not until next week.

right now, starting to see activity ramp up up and down the peninsula. south bay good batch of rain moving over downtown san jose. that means you might have to use your wipers from willow glen to campbell, good downpours but nothing like what we're expecting later today. that doesn't arrive until we hit 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. getting rich moisture all across the board. i continue to move you forward in time. we take you into the 8:00 hour tonight. still getting heavy rain at that point. and embedded thunderstorms as well. marin county, i hate to say it, expecting another round of flooding from the rainfall coming your way. throughout tomorrow, looking mostly dry. that's a good travel day, if that's where plans take you, maybe the sierras. it's going to be okay tomorrow. potent system by friday. that's not looking like the best of travel conditions but get out on saturday without problems. and on sunday, another system that will come through. but mostly impacting san francisco and the north bay.

and that's in your indication that, hey, that jet stream's going to lift to the north, take storm track with it. give us a prolonged period of dry weather that will continue all the way through your christmas thursday. we'll keep you updated on the status of the system as it comes in. it's just starting to hit the bay area. mike, that means time to kick it into high gear for us. going to be a slow drive for some people. >> kick it into lower gear, whatever you do to improve traction where driving. here we have slick roadways around the bay. sun's coming up to dry out roadways from rain. slow drive kicking in here for san jose north 101 at the 680/280 overcrossing. map will show you that translates to orange. not bad. speeds in the 50s. look at this 101, 87 a light volume of traffic for wednesday. we're looking at earlier crash at curtner which cleared. recovery north 87 off of 85. not bad for the south bay. big look at bay area, look at your maps, no problems for the

peninsula, a build off of 92. we'll show a slower drive south 880 through fremont past the crash at mowry. 880, yes, slowing coming down out of hayward. looking at a big slowdown out of sunol, identical to the situation monday where we have a big rig blocking two lanes. chp, trying to make the best of this work. tow truck's trying to get there last we heard tough getting there but that was 45 minutes ago. should be there by now. more traffic off of 580. fog and low clouds through dublin area. smoother drive through concord, highway 4. slowing through walnut creek interchange. approaching that bay bridge. look at our view from emery view across the span. no major problems. just metering lights off of the maze. golden gate bridge shows you evidence of the mist. it will be an issue for some spots around the bay. we can see across the span once

you look through drops on the lens. back to you. >> driving conditions and your forecast at your fingertips, download nbc bay area app on your smart phone. breaking news in san francisco this morning, where arson investigators are on the scene of four separate car fires in the city's noe valley neighborhood. each of the fears happened between 4:00 and 5:00 this morning. there are four separate crime scenes, 10 to 15 block as part from each other. no one was hurt. but this is the second round of fires in that same area. you may recall, arson investigators responded to a similar incident back in november. a number of cars were set on fire then in the castro a few blocks away from this crime scene. it's too soon to tell if these are related. of course we'll update you on any developments. >> keeping an eye on that. keep it in the city now. happening right now, volunteers stuffing grocery bags full of

goodies in the hopes of bringing holiday clear to san francisco's less fortunate. >> "today in the bay's" bob redell live in san francisco where glide memorial church expects to serve 5,000 people. >> reporter: 5,000, that's how many bags they'll be preparing here. they've got plenty of chickens coming in. everyone who comes will get a chicken, green beans, rice, oranges, a bunch of groceries. 7:30, they can be handed out so people can have substantial meal for the holiday. and people i'm talking about are these people right here. you can see them waiting in line, some since yesterday. this is along ellis on the outside of glide memorial, willing to wait that amount of time so they can get their hands on this annual gift grocery bag giveaway. they have enough for 5,000 people. we haven't seen that many people out there as of yet. certainly several hundred, not in the 5,000.

but will there be that number? too early to tell. giveaway starting at 7:30. as i mentioned, this is going to make the difference this season. >> food on the table, good spirits. >> reporter: without those people, what would you be doing? >> probably going hungry. >> reporter: now, that man was echoing a sentiment we heard from other people, telling us how important it was to get the bag of groceries. an annual giveaway, and this being what we believe is their 32nd year of the grocery bag giveaway. tons of poultry here in the foreground, what a lot of people want with canned goods and whatnot. some telling us they'll make this last for days. one person said oh a week. that's how important it is for them. live here in san francisco, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> can't forget so many needy in

our community despite a lot of wealth here as well. >> huge disparity. warms your heart to see smiles. shares in tesla much lower this morning, after morgan stanley said it was worried low gas prices would impact sales. >> scott mcgrew you say that's misguided. >> i think so. talk about the rich if you can afford $70,000 car you're not excited about lower gas prices to the point you wouldn't buy a tesla. people buy teslas because they're cool, not electric, that's a bonus. some buy a tesla no matter what prices are just to get into the car pool lane. s that a lux rluxury. morgan stanley predicting tesla will sell fewer cars because of gas prices. the fed will ignore the news we got moments ago, consumer prices are the lowest in six years. the fed cares deeply about inflation. and raises interest rates to fight inflation but there is no inflation. we still think the fed's going

to raise rates or hint at it. the only basketball fan in the bay area, pleased the grizzlies beat the warriors, ending the win streak. robert perra owns the grizzlies. he's happy. warriors lost er 16 wins in a row, guys. a good run, though. >> it was. thanks, scott. >> up and down for bay area teams. but warriors a good story. 6:57. >> final check of the day's top stories before we go. senior white house officials will hold a news conference to talk about the american who was just released from cuban captivity. alan gross a contractor jailed in cuba on espionage charges five years ago. in exchange for his return, three cubans, james in the u.s., will be released. sony canceled the new york premiere of the movie "the inteview" amidst knew threats

that a 9/11 attack could happen in theaters which show the film. the movie about an assist nation attempt on kim jong-un. crews out cutting up a tall tree in santa clara. happened on burbank drive off of lawrence expressway. the downpours loosened soil around the roots, causing it to tumble. >> we saw rain this week. tesla, we talked about it trying to fight their way through some of the flooding. we saw video, not an easy task now. >> no. we are expecting flooding. we expect flooding. you know what? it's been that rainy around here. let's talk about some of the success from the recent rainfall. 120-year record about to go down in san jose. we are talking about an all-time record, all we need is .16 for today. expecting .3 to .5, half of an inch of rain than means we had to go back to 1894 to fine a

december -- to find a december with this much rain. only at 17th day. yeah, i think we'll break that record in hours. >> you know what they say about records. meant to be broken. exactly. >> lick slick on the roads. >> repeat from rainy monday. southbound 680. roadways cleared southbound 680 and vargas. look, traffic not cleared. just started to move better. coming out of pleasanton. jammed from 580 on southbound 680 where the arrow is to vargas, where they just cleared that big rig from left two lanes. should have a smoother flow of traffic. 880 throw after a crash at mallory. slowing out of hayward. lighter volume. bay bridge toll plaza has your backup, so did the maze. south bay continues with northbound build. crashes for 87 have cleared. live look at san mateo, west 92, does have a slower drive despite lighter volume around the bay. one of your very few bay

crossings. so a lot of folks want to head over to the peninsula, they're doing that now. >> there they go. we're back at 7:25 with a live local news update. >> take a breath. but heavier rain picking up. see you in 25 minutes. >> good morning. breaking news. alan gross an american imprisoned in cuba the past five years on a plane back to the u.s. right now. his freedom part of a potential prisoner swap. will it usher in a new era of relations between cuba and the u.s.? canceled. the premier of t"the interview" scrapped. its stars pulling out of public appearances. one movie chain vowing not to show the movie at all as the fbi closes in on the group that hacked sony's computers.