weather alert. ad lib live pictu welcome to wednesday morning. we are in a microclimate weather alert. taking a live look outside, already folks out the door. probably a good idea, overlooking the east bay in oakland. the strongest storm of the season so far is headed straight for us. take a this radar, in fact, this morning. the storm a few hours away, so now is a little bit of a calm before the storm. so to speak. good morning to you and thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. right now we want t weather and meteorologist kari hall has been tracking it all for us. >> yes, and it will start out as scattered showers in the morning for us. we get a live look at storm ranger our mobile doppler radar, the red scan, going around the area. as of san francisco right now, we're seeing some showers moving

through parts of the city right now on 280 and 101. we're going to see some of the showers work across the bay over toward oakland within the next 20 to 30 minutes. this is part of a larger storm that will bring in heavy rain. high wind watch as well as wind advisory for the valleys. we have flash floods in effect. mike, you're looking at rainy roadwork. >> i made that hard for to you say, didn't? i folks over here having a hard time. the droplets on the lens indicating there was rain in the area southbound 101. you see the work at willow. that was registered as a possibility overnight and slow areas coming down as they open up the lanes on the bay shore freeway. you see that radar as well, the rain coming in off of the coast and also around the oakland and san francisco areas. so we're watching for that. we have more rain over here at the richmond to san rafae fire tears through a san francisco home. several people are hurt, even

more without a place this tell us? >> reporter: good morning to you, guys. we're here on san jose avenue. the fire is under control but we're hearing from officials this affected two buildings. i want to show you what the damage is behind me. you could see the main fire building with a lot of damage there, but it also affected another building, i believe, to the left, but the main fire is what you're looking at right there, at least where that fire was earlier this morning. i want to show you video from when the scene was more active with crews on the scene. i'm being told this happened, it began just before 12:30 a.m. the fire affecting the two buildings but one in particular, there was heavy smoke coming out of the building. the fire building had nine occupants, the other building had about 11 occupants. as far as rescues go, we hear from fir door and another was rescued by ladder on the second floor, and then there were six people also located in the backyard that

were taken aways is morning of the fire were getting around what they termed as the heavy amount of contents in the fire building. so i'm not sure if this was a hoarding situation. they said they had to work around that in order to put the fire out. as far as injuries go, we know that five people were sent to the hospital. two are in critical condition over at ucsf. the others wesent to st. franci. you can see the heavy amount of contents, that was the issue that the fire crews had to deal with this morning, so we're going to stay on scene and have another update for you guys at the top of the hour. we're live here in san francisco, pete suratos for "today in the bay." >> tough fire there. >> very much so. thanks, pete. back to our top story, a live look at our live doppler radar. many people in the north bay are concernedut "today in the bay's mcsweeney reports from one of the unusual trouble spots in san anselmo. >> reporter: they're ready for anhiituated

san anselmo creek. >> so underneath here is a floor sink, we're 15 feet above the grade of the creek, but when the water comes up, the water will come up into these sinks down here. >> reporter: worst case scenario, the whole street and businesses flood. >> we've been waist height in this restaurant before i took ownership of it, and back in 2000, sheriff had their search and rescue zodiac boats up and down the street here. >> reporter: at goodman's building supply in mill value i why, the wet forecast is good for business. >> a lot of tarps, rain boots, a lot of sandbags, a lot of batteries, flashlights. >> reporter: some people have even purchased this three-day survival kit. >> i am getting four mil tarp at 50 feet long to cover as much of my backyard to keep water from coming into my rental unit. >> reporter: the concern is keeping boats up tough when the winds howl. >> if the boat spins around it

can do a lot of damage to itself or another in the area. that's one of the big things. >> reporter: in san anselmo, terry mcsweeney, "nbc bay area news." san jose police searching for two men for a shooting inside a liquor store. video shows the men entering el rancho liquors on december 14th. police say inside the store, shots were fired, a man died. no word if he was a customer or a worker. the two men seen here ran from the scene. police still don't know the motive. police in san francisco hope this new sketch can help solve a recent brutal attack that left an elderly woman near death. it happened a week ago in vasation valley. the woman 88-year-old yiko wong is said to be on life support after suffering severe head injuries. police say her attacker also broke into her home across the street from where the attack took place.

4:36. follow-up for you this morning, we should know in the next few weeks whether a small north bay school district will change its controversial name. members of the dixie school district held a public meeting session yesterday in san rafael. "today in the bay" previewed that story yesterday. group backing the name says dixie refers to a native american woman from a tribe who once lived in that area. people who support the name change believe it's tied to racism. >> today, what dixie means to most african-americans is slavery, injustice, fighting desegregation, all that. >> the dixie schoolhouse opened in 1863. relatives of the man who built it actually say that the confederacy reference is intentional. the board is expected to vote in the next 40 days. it's 4:37 right now. coming up next on da sears, after the company files for bankruptcy.

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4:40 for you this morning, and business and tech news, wall street is set to open higher this morning. markets rose yesterday with netflix leading the tech rally, after it announced that it would raise prices offsetting

disappointing earnings from jpmorgan. on today's watch list, a report from federal reserve on economic conditions around the country, plus earnings from bank of america and goldman sachs. sears may have found new life. reuters reporting the retailer's chairman and largest shareholder eddie lampert has won the bankruptcy auction for the company's assets. he reportedly raised his takeover offer to $5.2 billion. the proposal would keep 425 sears and kmart stores open and save up to 50,000 jobs. the deal must still be approved by a judge. verizon adding free apple music to its price year unlimited data may costs $10 a customers who have either the beyond unlimited or above unlimited plans. verizon first partnered with apple last year offering six free months of apple music for customers with post paid unlimited data plans. splint unveiling a new rewards program that appears to

compete with t-mobile tuesdays. >> you install the my sprint rewards app on your phone. among the perks, a free large one-topping piece with a from papa john's, $20 off sam's club membership and up to 38% off of amc movie tickets. coming up next on "today in the bay," the biggest storm to hit the bay ground is already soaked, as you head out the door this morning, with some light showers moving through. sajose i lng at a mostly cloudy morning, and then the rain moving in by this afternoon. we'll time it out for your microclimate coming up next. and the rain has already hit the north bay and parts like san rafael, you see the curb moving smoothly but you also see the reflection for the puddles there, we're talking about what else we see and i'll update some slowing on the peninsula.

welcome back to you. take a look at this. look at all of that snow. this is from the sierra there, highway 89 at alpine meadows. our microclimate weather alert extends to the sierra, where right now crews are really having a hard time keeping up with all of that snowfall. just look at it continue to come down. you can see it through the light there. cars are on the road making their way around. >> in the meantime, heavy snow is certainly falling in the sierra. this is a look at i-80 last night. no doubt they're going to have snowplows out there as well. chains most likely will be required as well. this biggest storm that's moving to the bay area, of course, bringing all that blanket of

snow. there were threats of an avalanche, i understand, that was at 80 right there at the state line. so very concerning if you are headed to the sierra. might you have a little window of opportunity right now to go, if you want to go, kari? >> it is already snowing and the chain controls are up but the blizzard warping starts at 4:00 this afternoon, that's when visibility will ber zer and winds will be whipping at that time as the heavy snow comes down. we look at storm ranger -- >> actually, no, we're looking at a seismograph because we just got word there's been an earthquake. so this is what our nbc bay area seismograph, i'm told it's a 3.7 earthquake near piedmont. we understand a lot of people felt it in the area as well. if you felt it, we're jumping online as well, we're on twitter, we're on facebook. write to me, let me know if you felt it, but a 3.7 magnitude

earthquake near piedmont. kari kari, didn't mean to interrupt your meteorology weathercast but wanted to put up that seismograph. big concern is the storm. >> we'll see if anyone had any damage or any reports of anything from that earthquake, and as we look at some light rain starting out this morning on storm ranger, mobile topldop radar, we are seeing scattered showers. as we zoom into san francisco, mostly looking at light rain there and also for parts of the east bay, over toward oakland and extending up close to concord, but once again, this is a part of a larger storm system that will bring in some rounds of heavy rain. we see there's still a lot more of this storm that has to work through the bay area oto hour b through 8:30, and parts of the bay area will get a little bit of a break, while the north bay sees some rounds of some heavy rain moving in. there will be pockets of some heavy rain especially for the north bay, and then by 5:00,

we're all in with the heavy rain and the gusty winds, as our wind advisory and the high wind warning goes into effect and we also will have the flash flood watch in effect. you can see by 9:30, still a round of rain moving through that could push all across the bay area with some gusty winds, and maybe even some torrenti downpours briefly. tomorrow we have rain in and around the bay area, off and on but it starts to taper off for the afternoon. flash flood watch in effect for all of the bay area. there may f bews and a potential ofe rises in th small creeks and streams. here is a look at how much rain one computer model is showing, with the potential of getting about close to two inches of rain in the santa cruz mountains. all of us getting at least an inch of rain, there may be as much as four inches of rain, so the big impact from this storm will be about one to four inches of rain, and elevated at least

brief flash flood risk and winds that could top 16 miles per hour, some isolated thunder and the coast will have waves up to 25 feet. our seven-day forecast shows that by tomorrow, it's still going to be windy during the morning hours, as the rain kind of comes through off and on, but by friday, we're seeing it tapering off. saturday some sunshine, and a slight chance of rain on sunday, as we watch for a lunar lips mike, you were tracking what's happening out there, and were there any crashes? >> a few. few minor crashes popping up but slick roadways. just use caution out conretions to time across the bay bridge. that was reported by chp, and we see some of our cameras tremble from time to time. here is some of the radar activity, and i wanted to show what you kari has been talking about, tracking the changes as they happen all morning, and so we will continue to let you know if there are any major trouble spots. minor flooding reported in san francisco, and highway 17 just off the edge of the roadway there, so just be careful. stay to the middle of the freewayses wit s

freeways. as we come down to the south bay crashes popping up and clearing quickly. one aroundier ieie ieier yerba. 280 around meridian the middle lane is blocked, chp is going to give me an update on that in the last couple minutes. smooth drive across the san mateo bridge. the high-rise areas may get gusts of wind, we'll watch that much more severe tomorrow. over here no delays reported for the mass transit systems. b.a.r.t. sometimes affected by the rain, they have to slow their trains because of the issue with wet tracks and braking. ferry systems are here, san francisco bay ferry, golden gate ferry, no delays but we're watching for that. golden gate ferries warned the possibility for the next couple days and longer rides on the rails moving nicely out of the capitol corridor. there's palo alto on the peninsula, the bright light and the construction and closure of any of the lanes has cleared at

willow. we want to go back to the breaking news of a 3.7 magnitude earthquake there, in the piedmont area. people could feel this as far as burlingame there on the peninsula. we have been following that. reports have been coming of people feeling that, it happened about 4:40 this morning, as it shook, and this is a as you can see there in the piedmont area. just a jolt that people are saying they felt. we are continuing to monitor this as well. 4:50 right now. in contra costa county, dozens of people didn't let stormy weather keep them from attending a candlelight memorial for two teenagers who died in a horrible crash friday, on their way back from a high school basketball game. >> cheryl hurd reports from antio antioch, with a message from their families. >> my heart is breaking. my heart is breaking for jaya. jaya was a part of our family, too. >> reporter: two teenagers gone too soon. >> this is a parent's worst nightmare and a grandparent's

worst nightmare. >> reporter: one that annette castro says she is waiting to wake up from. her 17-year-old granddaughter liana rubin was driving this car when it crashed near the intersection of lone tree way and indian hill drive in antioch on friday. lian with 13-year-old jaya lighter i er ilightnor die. four other passengers, all teenagers were hurt. >> liana was not a very experienced driver. she just got her license like somewhere around thanksgiving. >> reporter: antioch police believe speed and wet roads were the reason behind the crash. >> in the name of jesus -- >> we ask you, god, to comfort this family -- >> reporter: tears and remembering young lives who were so connected. jaya's extended family remembering her as full of love, a daddy's girl, who will never be forgotten. >> they just went too soon. >> we need to make it, make

something big out of this, so other kids can know that driving is not a joke. it is not a joke. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay." coming up on "today in the bay," "nbc bay area responds." >> i'm consumer viewer tracks me down in person to help. what we learned about an unusual home improvement loan, when nbc bay area responds, next. first, there is a cloud of uncertainty hanging over england, and the european union this morning. the eu's chief brexit negotiator is calling the failed deal in england "deeply regretful." british lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected theresa may's divorce deal with the european union yesterday, plunging the brexit process into chaos and triggering a no confidence vote that could topple her government. more news right after this break.

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4:55 right now. breaking news, did you feel it? a 3.7 earthquake in the east bay. take a look at our nbc bay area seismograph here in our newsroom. it was considerable there. people are writing me on social media telling me they heard it, it sounded luke a big jolt or felt the big jolt up in alameda and it was felt in redwood city and burlingame as well. we're reading a tweet from someone who sent this in, heard and felt the earthquake in berkeley. of course, that's very close to where it was centered. no damage. good morning, norcal. quite the way to wake up for a lot of people. yes, there was an earthquake. we'll talk about the fault line now kari. >> yes, we are going to see as we go into the morning, the

potential of feeling a few more jolts, as we track that 3.7 magnitude earthquake that was centered near piedmont, that happened at 4:42, and the calaveras fault is what we look to and the hayward fault as well for the potential of some of t d the last large one that we had was in october 2007, alum rock, a 5.6, it was april 24th in 198 also likely to feel a few more jolts as we go throughout the morning, so we'll be watching for that. you can also contact us on social media, once again, to let us know if you felt it, and we will be watching out for those, all those shared experiences and sharing them with you as well throughout the morning. >> all right, thank you very much, kari. coming up here on "today in the bay," we're going to continue to monitor the top story this morning, that storm moving through the bay area. but first, here is a look at the morning commute with mike.

>> that's right, and with the wet roads, that's one of the warnings kari talked about that quake, you mentioned it. i should talk about it as well. standard protocol, b.a.r.t. is slowing the trains and had to reset to make sure the computers and the tracks are okay. ten-minute delay reported system-wide for standard protocol. we're going to continue to follow how that affected the .a.r. and how the weather might be affecting your other mass transit. plus, happening today, making sure everything runs brea

did you feel it? a 3-point-7 quake hits the eas breaking right now, at 5:00 a.m., did you feel it? a 3.7 earthquake hits the east

bay, centered near piedmont, but could be felt down the peninsula. look at our seismograph right now. so far, no reports of injury or damage but we are getting descriptions of people along the peninsula. jerry from san leandro writing me on twitter saying it was a really quick jolt, felt like a car had run into the house. what a way to wake up now on a wednesday morning. we're following another breaking story for us this morning, a microclimate weather alert. the strongest storm so far this year coming. live look a emeryville and our doppler powered radar by storm ranger as kari continues to monitor for us. thanks for starting your morning here with "today in the bay." i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. let's take a look at the seismograph as well, we have it here in our nbc bay area studios. it gives you kind of a look at what the earthquake looked like, a little jolt there, can you see it there, looks like it's been moved a little bit. prepare for aftershocks, just in case, but it was a 3.7, centered in piedmont. it was felt along the peninsula

as well. piedmont in the east bay, along the