slick spots and pools of water all over your roads and bridges. a live look right now at the golden gate bridge as more rain swooping into the bay area this morning. and rescuers rush to save a life ending with losing their own. what we're learning about a medical helicopter that crashed on the ten-minute plight to a central valley hospital. "today in the bay" starts right now. good morning, thanks for joining us. i'm kris sanchez in for laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm sam brock. wednesday continues into friday. we begin with the slick morning commute. this wave of storms finally passing through, but leaving behind some very wet roadways. mike is monitoring these conditions for us this morning. >> first, we want to go to

meteorologist kari hall who is keeping an eye on the radar. >> and it will be a wet drive to work or school this morning. we've seen these waves of rain still rolling across parts of the bay area and it looks like it will continue as this system is still far to the north and we see there is more of that to come as we go through the day. so, looking now at some of the heavier rain that has been rolling around gilroy and then another batch that's moving through pleasanton down to parts of the peninsula. now, as we go into the rest of the day, we will see more of these showers passing by and highs in the upper 50s for most of the bay area. so, bundle up, grab the umbrella and be prepared for this rain that will continue throughout the afternoon. let's check in now with mike to see how it's affecting the commute. >> good morning, kari. a wet commute. we should see a lighter volume of traffic but should affect these cars out here. the water on the lens, as well. still very slick and ka, areri

about more rain coming through. having hit right around lafayette where there are reports of a spinout. the ponding and puddling and watch for the blue sections, as well. little calmer in the south bay. but we have a crash southbound 101 and the off ramp where a car went into a poll on the side of the road and we have a crew heading out there to check things out. more rain on the way, you can always get your personalized forecast in your neighborhood 24/7. just download our free nbc bay area app. it's more accurate than your iphone forecast. now, to a developing story, kris. four people are dead after a medical helicopter crashed in the central valley. bob redell joining us with the latest on the investigation and the search for the missing chopper. >> this medical helicopter was transporting a critically ill patient. very short distance there when

it crashed around 7:00 last night in a dense field, fence fog field of orchards near the town of mcfarland. it crashed in an area known to have overhead power lines. it's not clear what role, if any, that might have played. all four people onboard were killed. rescuers began searching for the missing chopper after there was no contact for about 30 minutes. they were relying on the last-known gps signal. it took them another 90 minutes to find the crash site because of bad weather and rain. >> we ran into fog and heavy rain trying to get in by foot and it took us quite some time to get there. >> the ntsb is investigating the cause. incidentally the company that runs the medical chaupter service was holding its annual christmas party when employees received this awful news. >> that is just really sad. thanks, bob. new this morning, investigators are still trying

to sort out what led to a deadly head-on crash in san jose. this happened a little bit before midnight. one car had four people inside and two of those people died. the chp says the other two passengers left the scene and then were later found at separate hospitals. the driver of the other car, a pickup truck suffered serious injuries. investigators don't believe at this point that wet roads were a factor, but they are still trying to figure out if the driver who died was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. happening later today, a truck driver who pleaded no contest to a deadly crash on highway 17 will learn if he's going to face jailtime. paul sink was behind the wheel of a big rig that crashed last year. his brakes failed leading him taplow into ten cars. one person died and seven others were injured. he pleaded no contest to a vehic yiller manslaughter death. he faces up to a year of

jailtime. he and his former trucking company are also facing civil lawsuits, as well. happening today, the santa clara county sheriff will speak for the first time in a public forum since the racy e-mails surfaced. civil rights group want an overhaul of the jail's operations. the e-mails show a racist subculture. sheriff lori smith will address in los gatos. the radar is speaking to us this morning and it says a whole lot more green still left on that map, kari. >> we're not done with this rain just yet. as you head out this morning, we're still tracking some of the heavier downpours moving through parts of the east bay and the peninsula and then we do still have a very heavy downpour now moving through gilroy. moving up from the south county, you'll have to deal with some of those showers that have been creating some slick conditions and, also, some gusty winds. not much lightning at this

point, but going through fremont and heading towards san leandro we see some of the rain passing. as we take a look at what's happening all across the microclimates, we do see temperatures in the upper 40s to lower 50s and a high around 55 degrees in the east bay expected. in the south bay, only a high of 57 degrees. it will be cool, breezy and at times wet. i'll give you an idea of what to expect this weekend with another round of rain. that's coming up a little bit later. how is it looking out there, mike? >> in fremont a couple hours ago a huge crack of thunder that woke me up. towards 580 we are watching this vehicle, this truck. there's the puddling and ponding and as you come off the off ramp, it could be a hazard. and in the center lanes on the roadways. we're looking at a smooth drive despite that. the green shows you wet roadways through the area and wetter

roads coming through lafayette and the central lafayette off ramp. a single car sound like a spinout and flooding on city streets through san francisco. back to you. >> slow down and be careful. >> a lot of that, thank you, mike. coming up next, a white powdery substance forces the evacuation of a civil rights organization. dispel the stereotypes. south bay authorities are now in

the process of testing white powder found in a letter that forced

yesterday's evacuation of santa south bay authorities right now in the process of testing white powder in a letter that forced yesterday's evacuation of santa clara's muslim care center. hazmat teams evacuated the council on american islamic relations offices after workers discovered a letter containing white powder and a threatening message. three workers were taken to the hospital as a precaution. the executive director said the letter sender only used the name infidel. acts like this one only fan the flames of hate. >> i am angry that a civil rights organization would be targeted by individuals seeking to silence it. seeking to repress the right of american muslims and further -- >> the fbi is expected to investigate the scare along with a similar one yesterday at care headquarters in washington, d.c. preliminary test of the substance in that letter showed

nothing toxic. dive teams will continue scouring the waters in san bernardino where there might be evidence linked to last week's shooting massacre. the fbi is still not revealing exactly what they're looking for, but we do know that the hard drive from the suspect's home is still missing. the search is expected to continue for a few more days and there's no guarantee that they'll find anything. >> as i told you from day one, we will leave no stone unturned. the reason we're here searching this lake today is because we did have a lead that indicated that the subjects came into this area. >> meantime, federal agents are adding to the number of injured in that attack and authorities say 22 people are now confirmed injured after another victim turned herself into the hospital several days after the attack. been another round of talks on gun laws in this country. coming up next, one u.s. governor poised to make history

pushing a gun ban the president wants but the congress has not yet delivered. got a tip for nbc bay area investigative unit? call 1-888-996-tips or e-mail theunit@nbcbayarea.com. nbc bay area, we investigate.

so mike mentioned it earlier and i'll second it. you woke up this morning or late

night early morning to the sound of thunder out there. >> we're room mates. >> we all live in the same house. >> we live here, actually. >> yeah, because we had some storms rolling through. that was the strongest batch of storms we've seen. we even had some hail reported in parts of the east bay. now, as we take a live look at san francisco from san bruno mountain we still see cloudy skies and a couple showers after a round just past san francisco. now, it's rolling to the south and as we take a look at the bigger picture, we can see more rain to come as we see this wave of rain and the series of low pressure systems that will continue to roll on through. this area of rain we're seeing moving through pleasanton and extending to parts of the south bay and over to the peninsula. that making things wet all over again after that first round of rain moved through and it is cool, too. only 44 degrees in napa. mostly in the mid up to upper

40s. wind forecast keeps it breezy and as you use the umbrella, keep in mind that you have to keep a tight grip on that. then as we go into the day, the wind starts to relax some, but still staying pretty breezy and kicking up, once again, as we head into tonight and possibly another round of showers moving through. a look at the futurecast keeps the rain in and around the bay area and then into the noon hour, another round of some heavy downpours moving into the north bay. this could also cause localized flooding briefly as it passes and then some break times of sunshine, breezy winds, cooler temperatures and tomorrow mostly sunny. ahead of another system that moves in sunday. looks to get here early sunday morning. looking at highs in the mid up toer 50s. cool, breezy, once again. but at least that sunshine will help us out just a bit and dry things out in between the showers that we will see off and on throughout the day.

we'll take another look at the forecast coming up and what to expect this weekend, but let's see how things are rolling now with mike. >> with this weather we do worry about all the flooding reports. so far just minor flooding in many patches. we'll talk about that in a second. this is san jose, the south bay. camera zoomed in to 101. see the water kicking up. even if it's not actively raining. we look at the map and see wet roadways. highlighted in green. here's a crash southbound just south of there still reported there on the shoulder and repairing a pole that sound like it was knocked down. all over the bay, consider the roads wet because the sun hasn't had a chance to dry things out yet. over here minor flooding through san francisco streets and we look at the golden gate and notice in the large part watching flooding across 101. >> thank you, mike. high demands, low delivery. the u.p.s. says there are more packages to deliver this year.

>> for that and the rest of the news before the bell, we turn to landon dowdy live at cnbc world headquarters. good morning, landon. >> good friday morning to you both. the dow looks to end on a down note. oil prices continue to hover around nearly seven-year lows. data on retail sales and the dow rising 82 points to 17574. the nasdaq up 22 to 5045. afford is moving full speed ahead on a new stratyae. the automaker plans to launch a new electric version of the ford focus next year that has a 100 mile range and can recharge in 30 minutes. ford also wants to develop its own ride sharing service using a fleet of ford transit shuttle vans versus just selling cars to uber and lyft. u.p.s. struggling to keep up with online sales. the wall street journal says

data from software developer shows the ontime delivery rate for u.p.s. was 91% last week versus 97% a year ago. u.p.s. has more residential deliveries and planned with extra pickups and not enough staff to handle the higher volumes in some areas. sam and kris, back to you. >> they'll have to hire a team of drones to help them deliver all those packages. right now 4:49. the controversy over guns and hundreds of mass shootings that we've already had in recent years. the governor of connecticut today may be on the verge of making history. daniel molloy plans on signing a first of its kind executive order. it would ban the sale of guns to people on federal watch lists. many law enforcement say not having such a ban nationally represents a gaping hole in federal law. so, governor molloy says connecticut will have to do it alone. some california lawmakers are watching the situation very

closely. >> right now congress has shown an inability and an unwillingness to act on this. and if that's the case, i think governors have to do everything they can to protect the people they represent. >> governor brown has not said anything yet publicly about what's happening in connecticut, but gun enthusiasts say banning the sale of weapons to those on the no-fly list marks an unconstitutional act. president obama's advisors are finalizing a proposal to expand background checks on gun sales. the executive order is certain to anger gun lobby and supporters on capitol hill. one adviser says the governor wants the proposal on his desk as soon as possible. she says the president shares the pain and frustration of those mass shootings like in san bernardino. a commuter train barrelled through at least four stops without a conductor. an investigation under way into

how this happened yesterday morning. it would have derailed had transit workers not taken emergency steps. they shut off electricity to the line as the train shot past stop after stop. >> and we were trying to open the doors and we couldn't and we were trying to press a button to the emergency room and nobody heard. and the people that were in the first car were trying to knock on the door of the conductor and that's when we discovered there was nobody there. >> they did eventually track down the conductor, he was injured somehow, but no immediate word why he was not at the controls and how the train took off on its own. >> a lot of folks taking mass transit here. certainly we want to know what happened there. a san francisco neighborhood is prepping for an el nino year by suing the city. we'll show you why they say the flooding in their community is not a natural disaster, it's man dade.

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4:54 right now. we've seen some wet weather continuing here. >> take a look at the maps behind kari. hi, kari. >> not just for the rain that we just had. the computer models here did a pretty good job of forecasting this first round of rain. this is what we're expecting between sunday morning and sunday afternoon. another good soaking and some spots up to at least an inch and a half and then as you head towards the south bay, about 0.75. again, that's with the next round and additional snowfall in the sierra may reach anywhere from two feet to, you know, up to 25 inches in kirkwood. so, it's going to be a lot more snow heading into the next several days and more rain for the bay area. let's check in now with mike to see what's happening on the

roads now. >> watch out for the drivers and that snow you also showed hitting hard for that donner pass area. heading towards the summit over the next few days over the weekend. over here watching over the left shoulder and center divide and san mateo westbound. no slowing past the scene, but wet, slick roads and a word of caution for bridge goers. along the same latitude wet roadways extending over. 101 at capital expressway. and a crash, though, east 5al 0. we'll end with this map and talk about it right there as you're coming out of downtown. flooding in the area, as well .p back to you. >> thank you very much. our recent rainfall is causing concern among folks in san francisco where raw sewage is flooding the streets, again. some neighbors are suing the city demanding reimimbursement for when the rain caused sewage pipes to erupt into the streets just a year ago.

they added an amendment to their lawsuit to allow the city to stop using sewage hook up in new homes because they fear a repeat of last year. >> it was like three or four inches just sitting here and i could smell the sewage. that's when i knew we had a problem, still have a problem. even with a very moderate rainfall. >> how the public utilities commission says it can only design a system to a certain degree. right now it smells like the holiday season and christmas. the $600,000 facelift for downtown san jose now complete. we first told you about the illuminating downtown project on wednesday night. the project that's making two underpasses on santa clara and san fernando street more vibr t vibrant. triggered by motion sensors on the walkway. the more pedestrians, the more the lights change. the art display officially opens to the public tonight. i like that.

some christmas cheer in middletown. the lake county town suffered a lot of losses during the valley fire when hundreds of homes were destroyed. santa clara, santa claus brought happy moments and toys for children who lost everything. fire departmented and other agencies throughout northern california donated hundreds of toys and, of course, the goal of this give away was to make christmas as normal as possible for those youngest fire victims. many of whom still cannot go home. >> santa claus brightening up a lot of families there. 4:57. coming up next, it might have woken you up in the middle of the night. thunderstorms and rain ripping through the bay area and the system bringing us all this wet weather still lingering. a live report from the road and from kari's radar. plus, crashing in mysterious conditions. a medical helicopter rushing to a california hospital goes down with no survivors. the latest on the investigation, next. gate bridge-- expect slick

roadways for your morning commute. we have team covera roadways for your morning commute. team coverage on what you can expect as this wave of storms passes through the bay area. a rush to save a life ends with four people losing theirs. the overnight details about a medical helicopter that crashed in flight to a central valley hospital. "today in the bay" starts right now. good friday morning, thank you for joining us. i'm sam brock. >> i'm kris sanchez in for laura

garcia-cannon. today, we've seen it all. hail, lightning, snow in the sierra mountains and this latest storm is bringing more of everything this morning. we've seen slick roadways as we take you to look outside of palo alto where raindrops are lingering for your morning commute. >> get you out safely from road conditions to where the storm is headed. we start right now with meteorologist kari hall and how long we can expect the wet weather for folks in san francisco. >> it will be going off and on throughout the day. look at where this storm system is now and we're still tracking more of that rain to the north of us. it will take a break at times and then we'll see it coming right back. and so another round of heavy rain approaching san jose at this point. and that will make things slippery, once again, as people head out the door. and a look at all the temperatures and the microclimates. in the mid to upper 40s. it will be a cool day with highs only in the mid to r