breaking right now at 5:00, the caldor fire burning in the west with evacuations under way for south lake tahoe area. tropical storm ida is slamming the gulf coast. >> those in louisiana waking up to a new reality, with so much now gone, this is after the category 4 storm slammed ashore. we have complete coverage this morning. this is "today in the bay." >> and a very good monday morning to you. thanks so much for joining us. hope you had a great weekend. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. >> let's start out with that breaking news. south lake tahoe we're watching it closely as the evacuation orders are out. the caldor fire burning as it heads into the tahoe basin. "today in the bay" kris sanchez joins us now with more on the evacuations under way and the fire fighting efforts have been ongoing for some time, kris. >> this is surreal for folks who spent a lot of time in lake

tahoe. right now bart memorial hospital in south lake tahoe is being evacuated, though notes the city of south lake itself. cal fire saying this fire more aggressive than they anticipated. this is the evacuation map, the areas in red are under mandatory evacuation orders, now including christmas valley, echo summit and myers, kirkwood ski resort. the areas in yellow under evacuation warning. that means folks need to be ready to get out. of equal concern dots on the screen we will zoom into at some point, the red and white icons, the roadways close. i-80 the only way out to the west. highway 50 is also closed after the fire jumped the highway near i couldber and a large portion of 88 is shut down. cal fire said nearly 500 homes were destroyed along with 11 businesses, more than 21,000 other structures are under

threat. in the two weeks just two weeks since the fire started, the caldor fire burned 168,000 acres and it is contained just about 13% of its perimeter. these are thermal images from cameras that firefighters are using in order to see through all of the really thick smoke. on the left the camera heavenly, on the right the camera above mount danner. now about 20,000 people are under evacuation orders so if you had plans to head to tahoe for labor day, forget about it. those folks are trying to get out, don't clog up the roadways. there's nothing to see up there. >> the air quality is horrible right now. >> just seeing those pictures, meteorologist kari hall was showing that and tracking everything from the fires to ida. what are we talking about right now dealing with the caldor fire? >> it's so concerning because it is getting so close, the vegetation is dry and there's not a whole lot to stop it here. we're expecting the winds to pick up. our weather conditions have been favorable for a higher rate of

spread. the red dots show where we have active fire burning at this point and where it is progressing and houf it is from south lake tahoe into the tahoe basin. only about seven miles away. we know this fire has burned some 230 something miles of this square -- square miles of this area over the past couple weeks. so it is definitely of high concern. as we've seen some of that smoke coming into the bay area, our air quality this morning as you wake up and head out the door, moderate, but we are expecting some improvements here. we're also tracking new fire concerns with the red flag warnings that are going up for this entire region and with the wind coming out of the west/southwest even though it will clear the air quality for us, it's going to increase the rate of spread of that fire heading towards south lake tahoe. we're watching all of that as well as what's now tropical storm ida. this made landfall yesterday as a category 4. it's continuing to dump heavy amounts of rain across

louisiana, mississippi and alabama and this also causing a high storm surge. that's that wall of water being pushed up out head of this storm as well as the heavy rain that's falling within that tropical storm over some of the same areas that are dealing with the storm surge and flooding with some high winds. there is a lot going on here. for more on ida send it back to you. >> that is another breaking story we have for you this morning. this is right now live piktz for you as that tropical storm weakens as it takes aim at the tennessee valley. that's a live picture from new orleans this morning as they are without power as that storm continues to move. now more than 1 million residents are without power this hour. the 911 system in new orleans parish or leans parish is experience something technical difficulty. >> we have new video just in to our newsroom showing rising sea levels on the barrier island of grand isle. you can see the floodwaters rushing into the fire department

there as well. sadly at least one person has died in the storm. several hospitals in the state are being evacuated. homes and buildings certainly damaged. president biden declared a major disaster in louisiana and ordered federal aid to supplement recovery effort. >> ron allen is in jackson, mississippi, where the strong winds and rain starting to pick up at this hour. >> reporter: this started a few hours ago and has been picking up as the hours have been going on through the morning. sheets of rain. the wind is picking up but gusts reported as much as 50, 60 miles per hour, but again it comes in bands. we are still north of where the storm center is. it's moving very slowly as we heard reported throughout the morning. the peak and worst is supposed to happen later this afternoon. but it's already getting pretty bad. we're hunkered down outside of a hotel because we have a refuge, all the cars in this parking lo the are people from louisiana who have come here to seek

shelter. it's about a three-hour drive or so from new orleans to jackson on a good day, and people are here with all their possessions and families and pets and they're just huddled by the tv and on their phones trying to get word of what's going on back home. here the concern is about a lot of rain. this year, like so much of the rest of the country, is saturated and four to six more inches of rain as the day goes on. everything is shut down, of course,p and schools are closed, businesses are closed. there's very little traffic on the roadways and a big concern about flooding. there's a lot of areas around this city that flood historically and that's probably going to happen again. the word as we hear in so many places is for people to stay home, hunker down, let this thing blow through. it's moving slowly we know. the hope is that it picks up speed and gets out of here. for now, this is where we are at this moment. in a few hours, it's expected to be even worse than this.

>> our hearts go out to the people bracing for everything there. in the meantime let's talk about the crisis in afghanistan. developing this morning, less than 48 hours until the deadline passes for american forces to leave afghanistan. the scene described as chaotic for those still trying just to make it out in time. amidst new reports of explosions and gunfire outside kabul airport, u.s. military still flying people out. it's believed some 300 american citizens are among those still on the ground. we've learned the identities of the soldiers killed in last week's isis terror attack. here are their photos. four service members from california including marine sargent nicole gee from roseville outside of sacramento. her father this morning is talking to the "today" show about what's become an iconic photo of her in afghanistan holding an infant. >> and when people see that photo, they cecum passion, they see love, they see a hero.

as her father, what do you see? >> just my baby. yeah. that's my baby. >> you can watch more of that interview later this morning on the "today" show. the full u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan is set to happen by midnight tomorrow. coverage continues on our digital platforms as well. visit nbcbayarea.com. just click on afghanistan attacks. it is in the trending bar. a milestone in the fight against covid in san francisco. mayor london breed posting this treat announcing 80% of eligible san franciscoens 12 and older are fully vaccinated. so far 86% of the people have received at least one dose and in her tweet she wrote, quote, this is a major milestone, but we still have work to do to make sure that all of us are protected. another bay area city may soon be asking people to mask

up. we told you how benicia was with moving forward with its own mask mandate because solano county doesn't have one. now vallejo is considering doing the same thing. vallejo will have a special meeting to discuss the potential mandate. moving you forward with a short-term plan for vta light rail service after the rail yard shooting tragedy. limited services resumed yesterday. transporting football fans to the niners/raiders preseason game at levi. until september 13th light rail fares will not be collected and only orange and green lines are operating for now with green line service limited until 7:00 p.m. trains on the orange line will run from 5:30 a.m. until midnight. 5:09. monday morning. hopefully everybody coming off a decent weekend. got to check the weather now, and check the morning commute. yeah, monday. >> yeah, monday. i was out there at the niners game yesterday. >> i saw.

>> i was really surprised to see the trains running. they're back. so, you know, and the air quality wasn't too bad. it did clear out a little bit. as we take a look the dots indicate our current air quality moderate for much of the east bay as well as the south bay. little orange dot there in the tri-valley indicate something unhealthy air quality. it's still mixing in with the low clouds that we're seeing this morning, some of the smoke continuing. look at our near surface smoke model clearing out as we go into this evening. we're going to get a strong westerly wind picking up that's going to help clear out our air, but also blowing some more of that fire over towards south lake tahoe. we're tracking all of that. mike, you're going to give us a look at the golden gate bridge. >> just to note the next time if you want transportation information take me to the niners game. i'll help you out and let you know minute by minute. looking over here, no problems on the golden gate bridge. you can see the lights all the way across the span. two lanes north, four lanes south. we're okay. no crews right now on the bridge. a smooth drive.

sensors there as well as look at this longer drive out of contra costa county, no problem. through contra costa county, looking great as well. south of there just a little bit out of the altamont pass. no warnings, no advisories from the peninsula easy flow of traffic an south bay. everything goes according to typical pattern, for contra costa county, that will start in about 40 minutes. back to you. >> thanks, mike. coming up for you this morning, more travel restrictions coming our way as covid cases continue to rise across the u.s. one country says stay out, where americans will soon be restricted. ever want to call up an astronaut. you might be able to soon. the feature that could be coming to your smartphone. .

good monday morning. right now at 5:14, heading out the door in oakland, we're starting out with clouds, cool weather, temperatures in the upper 50s and it's going to warm up today at noon in the upper 60s towards the mid 70s here. some spots still reaching near 100 degrees. we'll talk more about that and our air quality coming up. and you can see oakland there it is right there. 880 nice drive, nice flow of traffic. now i misspoke earlier i think contra costa county's build will happen within the next half hour. i misspoke earlier. one who doesn't misspeak, let's check in with contessa. >> good morning, everybody. i'm contessa brewer from cnbc.

wall street set to open slightly higher this morning. the nasdaq and s&p 500 closed at record highs friday. investors breathing a sigh of relief. fed pair jay powell signaled the central bank could start reducing its monetary stimulus. the dow is up 1.5% this month, the s&p 2.5% and the nasdaq about 3%. oil prices hitting a more than three-week high today before pulling back. analysts are anticipating refineries, pipelines and oil platforms along the gulf coast will be able to resume operations quickly following hurricane ida. in focus today a report on pending home sales. and google generated more than $11 billion in revenue from its mobile app store in 2019 according to a court filing unsealed this weekend. it offers a clear view into the finances of the google play store for the first time. attorneys general in 37 states

are suing google over alleged ap i.t. violations in the app store, sales of apps, in app purchases and sales of ads. google is fighting back on charges it has abused an alleged monopoly in app sales for android devices. the next i phone could be reaching for the stars. the iphone 13 could have the ability to make satellite calls. he says the phone will be able to connect directly to low earth orbit satellites thanks to a custom chip. that means potentially you can get in touch with someone while on a remote camping service without any cell service at all. apple expected to launch the new phone in september. it's not clear whether the feature will be limited to pro models. marcus and laura how long before we're saying just beam me up, scotty. >> i know. >> that will be cool. >> what great safety feature though. >> especially for hikers. >> in the remote areas.

>> yeah. all right. thank you. this is zoom's moment of truth. the company will report earnings after wall street's opening bell. after huge surges during 2020, zoom's stock has fallen out of favor this year. analysts say the earnings report will be a key indicator of so-called stay-at-home stocks or stocks of companies that saw a boom because of the shift to working from home. the dow futures are up a couple hundred points. nasdaq futures are flat. a new man at the top of the box office, candy man. >> if we say his name five times while looking in the mirror. >> five times? wasn't it three times back in the day. look at that. this is universal's reboot of the 1992 original, slashed its way to $22 million in its debut, despite the covid concerns. "free guy" another solid weekend, $13 million there. it took the number two spot followed by "paw patrol" with $6 million. a couple in bolivia with the

taste for the extravagant tied the knot in the an pleasant temperatures ensured the day wao make the ascent to the summit of -- from la paz. the couple was wed at the height of about 21,000 feet above sea level on the mountain's summit. >> that is a marriage that better stand the test of time. >> you want to when after all we went through? >> i hope the altitude wasn't so high. like what did i do? >> for life. >> somebody holding the train. the bride's train. >> off the shoulder, being so cold up there. >> wow. >> the things we do for beauty. >> and love. >> and fashion. >> let's get a look at what we can expect from the forecast. meteorologist kari hall has been busy looking at the conditions surrounding the fires burning in the state. >> so much going on and this is

really heartbreaking to see. this camera live view of the fire that's moving over the ridge from our sierra at tahoe alert wildfire camera. so in the night, they're seeing lake tahoe. it is closing in unfortunately they rns able to get the containment they were hoping for as the fire continues to make a run closer to south lake tahoe. here at home, we've seen all of the smoke coming from the caldor fire into the bay area as well as all the other fires burning across the region. then going into this evening, our near surface smoke model shows a lot of this clearing out so those light blues shows just hazy conditions. we're not going to see the unhealthy air quality we had at times over the weekend. it does continue to clear out as we get a strong westerly wind. you can see how it moves that smoke, but also will push the fire into the direction of south lake tahoe over the next couple days. the reason why we're seeing more

of those evacuation orders being put up. the weather conditions across the region, hot start to the week and as we head towards the end of the week storm systems moving over the pacific northwest will push us in with some cooler air and ocean breeze and we'll come out of the 80s and 90s we're seeing in our inland valleys to cooler temperatures. we're still headed towards 94 degrees in concord, 82 in napa. san raphael reaching 86 degrees and palo alto headed towards 83. 85 in san jose and 93 in morgan hill. let me show you how brentwood is going to cool off over the next few days from 101 today to 91 tomorrow. and wednesday the coolest day of the week, big change over just the few days reaching 84 on wednesday and then gradually heading back up for the weekend and early next week. so looking at our inland overall forecast it's going to once again be hot today. we cool off for the next few days and into early next week, going to start to warm up again

early this weekend i should say. looking at san francisco mid 60s for today and staying nice and cool as the fog returns. mike, how is it looking for the morning commute? >> looking great. this monday, folks are easing into the week. nice drive south bay, peninsula, north bay no problems. east bay, great. tri-valley no problem as well. just a little build. more traffic building up off of 205, more traffic coming in out of traci whiz i filtering over here. we'll see the dublin interchange, highway 84 more traffic. how it affects the slowing. nothing major through contra costa county approaching the bay bridge. the span a smooth drive towards san francisco and an easy drive down the east shore freeway across the carquinez bridge. our coverage of the caldor fire, residentness south lake tahoe are told to get out as the flames continue to spread. the latest and those developments coming up next. >> find our team on social

media, including kari hall. she had such a fun weekend at the 49ers game. repping the niners jersey out there. looking good. she's on facebook, instagram and twitter. you're watching "today in the bay."

breaking overnight, the caldor fire spreading rapidly leading to new evacuation orders and warnings for south lake tahoe. the fire has burned more than 168,000 acres and grew so

quickly catching fire crews, they were off guard. the containment from 19% to 13%. more than 650 structures are gone. five people have been hurt. if you're heading to any eu nation any time soon you may want to brace for more travel restrictions because the european union today expects to take the u.s. off its so-called safe list due to higher number of covid cases here. eu safe travel countries must have fewer thanses per 100,000. the u.s. rate here is more than 300. as a result, the u.s. travelers may see more restrictive measures including quarantine or increased testing. it's up to individual nations to enforce those rules. with more californians having the need for covid testing, result wait times have been higher. the latest week of numbers show the covid testing dashboard show the wait times for results are above the one-day threshold with an average turnaround time now

at 1.2 days. it was nearly 50% below at 0.7 back in june. more testing at schools and workplaces is a big contributor factor to all of this with daily tests nearing as high as they were back in january. tomorrow the fraud trial of elizabeth holmes will begin after newly unsealed documents show holmes plans to defend herself arguing her business partner and exboyfriend sunny ball waneny psychologically and sexually abused her. he is facing his own criminal trial. his attorney calls the allegations false. the documents reveal holmes plans to testify in her own defense. jury selection begins tomorrow. next here the top stories we're following today including the breaking news, south lake tahoe being evacuated overnight as flames from the caldor fire spread. we're following the latest overnight with the developments. plus -- >> vaccines required for all

eligible students, the mandate that could be coming to a large school district here in the east bay. you're watching "today in the bay."

california! during a flex alert, let's keep our power up and running. set ac cooler and use big appliances before 4pm. then from 4-9pm reduce use and take it easy on our energy. sign up today.

breaking right now at 5:30, evacuations in south lake tahoe as flames from the caldor fire reach the area. conditions are changing by the minute. we're following the latest developments. da making landfal gulf coast leaving new orleans

in the dark. we're live with complete coverage. so much going on. you're watching "today in the bay." just second away from 5:30 right now. thanks so much for starting your day with us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. we begin with the breaking news in south lake tahoe as the area, some of it, under evacuation order as the caldor fire burns cabins as it heads into the tahoe basin. >> let's check in with "today in the bay's" kris sanchez monitoring how the evacuation orders are going and these tough fire fighting efforts you feel what they're up against. >> to put it in perspective, bart memorial hospital in south lake tahoe is under evacuation order. though not the city of south lth itself. cal fire saying the fire is more aggressive than they anticipated. the evacuation map the areas in red are under mandatory evacuation orders including christmas valley, echo summit, kirk koods ski resort, the areas

in yellow are under a warning and should be ready to get out. i-80 the only way out to the west. highway 50 is closed because the fire jumped the highway and a large portion of highway 88 is shut down. as of sunday evening, cal fire said nearly 500 homes were destroyed along with 11 businesses and more than 21,000 structures are still under threat. in the two weeks since it started the caldor fire has burned 168,000 acres. right now it is 13% contained which is actually a lot. they went backwards in containment. it was 19% earlier in the day. these are some of the thermal cameras that firefighters are using to see through all of that thick and heavy smoke. on the left-hand side the camera heavenly, on the right the camera above mount danner. about 20,000 people are now under evacuation orders, going

for the labor day holiday, forget about it. all those routes should be for people trying to leave, not get there. >> don't want to be there with the smoke conditions there. a lot to keep track of. let's bring in meteorologist kari hall as well. the smoky conditions we've seen all the way here in the bay area. >> yeah. we still are tracking that active rate of spread for the fire. your heart just breaks this morning seeing what's going on. so i've put a map here with the yellow dots showing all of the areas that have burned and then the red dots show where the active fire is still happening and where it's making some forward progress. we know that it's continuing to move very close to south lake tahoe. now starting to enter into the tahoe basin, it's going downhill and spreading closer to the lake tahoe, south lake tahoe area. so we've also been seeing a lot of that smoke moving in, but what's going to happen today is our winds are going to pick up. a westerly wind is going to clear out the smoke, but also push the fire around the caldor

fire off towards the east and firefighters are trying to get some containment on this now with some new red flag warnings going up for this region. with the wind coming out of the west/southwest picking up to 20 to 35 miles per hour, this fire may spread very quickly as well as the dixie fire zones where we may see some more evacuation orders going up as it spreads in different directions. we do have a lot of concerns there as well as what's now tropical storm ida that made landfall yesterday as a category 4 hurricane, still pushing up a big storm surge and dumping some heavy rain across louisiana, mississippi and alabama. so for more on that let's head over to you now. >> already affecting a big, large area right now. ida as it continues to move already being blamed for at least one death. >> let's bring in "today in the bay's" jay gray live in new orleans this morning. millions there in the dark and boy, the devastation just hard to see, jay.

>> yeah. laura and marcus a bit of sunrise now and what it's revealing is devastation across this entire city. i want to give you an idea of what's happening in the french quarter behind me. you can see a rooftop there that was thrown from one of the buildings here and as it came down, pulled down with it a traffic light and street sign that was on the arm that's twisted and mangled as you move up to the balcony, you can see that it ripped away shutters, pushed open doors, the wind shattering windows as well and that's not only right here in this pocket, but across the entire french quarter and really, throughout the whole city. there is severe damage across new orleans right now. as we get going with the sunrise here, we're seeing people start to come out and take a closer look at things here and try and figure out what happened to their city. that's the ones that stayed behind and decided to ride this out. we get a little bit of a gust

there. marcus and laura a big issue going into this, the lack of power. the entire new orleans metro area has no electricity. more than 1 million people. it may be a while before that's restored. the transmission lines that bring that into the city, eight lines that bring the electric ty, they're in the mississippi river and that's going to be a difficult task. >> always seeing the aftermath there so surprising so many people decide to stay and hunker down during the storm as they move through. jay gray in new orleans, thank you. you look at the image you can't imagine what the sound must have been like. you've covered many of these type of storms before. give us perspective on it. >> i was in louisiana during hurricane katrina living right here in lafayette, that's just not too far from new orleans. when you talk about people deciding to ride this out, some people don't have a choice. some people don't have the means to get up and pick up and move and so they have to be in the path of this storm. so you see all of the heavy rain

that's continuing. they talked about the wind that knocked a lot of those roofs off and now we're dealing with all of this heavy rain. this made landfall on the anniversary of hurricane katrina 16 years ago and then you think about last year they had to deal with hurricane laura that was just as strong moving in as a category 4 hurricane. really concerning there. still have a lot of friends in new orleans and concerned about them thinking about them this morning. >> kari, thank you. bay area crews this minute they are on their way to the gulf coast and you can see right here oakland's fire urban search and rescue team were loading ups the gear with supplies last night. they are be one of many teams heading to the louisiana area to help where they're needed. oakland's fire department is one of only 28 fema sponsor teams in the country that responds to calls like this. >> so much going on in our world. meanwhile, the pandemic, new spike in u.s. hospitalizations to tell you about with the delta variant surging.

according to the "new york times" the national average is now topping 100,000,er than previous covid-19 surges except last winter's. florida has the most hospitalizations with more than 16,000. texas following with over 14,000. california has more than 8,000 people in the hospital. one of the east bay's largest school districts now looking into a vaccine mandate for its students. >> let's check in with bob redell outside of hercules high school and middle school. >> correct, laura and marcus. the west contra costa county unified school district superintendent is reaching out to the school district down in culver city, eastern california, that district has already mandated vaccines for eligible students. the superintendent here wants to see what lessons they've learned and if they were to implement that up here what they could do. at last week's board meeting

members expressed interest in mandating vaccines for all students, new student 12 years of age and up. 93% of teachers are already vacsed here. west contra costa county has 30,000 enrolled. down south within the fremont unified school district, 33 students, teachers and staff have contracted covid. the district believes most of those people became infected off campus. this is out of ap population by the way of 33,000 students and just over 4700 teachers and staff. the superintendent there points out their case rate is just a tenth of a percent. 95% of teachers in fremont a ma school the cdc says an unvaccinated teacher infected with covid is linked to 26 more infections. this outbreak happening back in may. there are 22 children, four parents infected by or linked to

the one teacher. what's remarkable about the cdc report the kids were masked in the classroom, but the teacher sometimes took off the mask when reading allowed to the students. >> a seating chart -- >> shows the children and socially distanced desks in the front row. they show they tested positive for covid during the may outbreak. even kids in the back row came down with the delta variant. marin county health officials say the rapid spread in the class makes the case for getting vaccinated when you can and for wearing masks inside, especially around kids who are too young to be eligible to be vaccinated. reporting live here in hercules, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> you know we're also tracking all covid cases in the bay area school districts. head over to nbcbayarea.com. there you can find the district's covid-19 information and find out how many cases are actually being reported in your child's school. we have a covid-19 dashboard link on our trending bar as well. happening today for you, cdc advisory panel set to meet today

to discuss the timeline for a covid booster shot. the cdc previously advises eight months after your second vaccination. dr. anthony fauci endorsing the plan but says that the timeline may change based on that new data. let's take you out lives across the bay area this morning. still dark out there. waiting for the sun's arrival on this monday. we could see some more smoke from the wildfires that we've been tracking. an air quality advisory has been issued for today. meteorologist kari hall has been keeping her eyes on that for us. it was downgraded, right? >> right. over the weekend a spare the air alert that meant that air quality was unhealthy, and this morning it's air quality advisory meaning if you're sensitive to the smoke or have breathing problems, you may want to limit your time outside. take a look at what's going too the bay area around noon. clear across the coastline where

we will have fog. going into tonight a strong ocean breeze is going to pick up. that's going to help push that smoke off towards the east and help clear our air, but as we go into the next several days that wind coming in from the west will fan the flames of the caldor fire and spread it in the direction of the tahoe basin. we're watching that as well as some cooler temperatures in our forecast. i'll have more on that in a few minutes. mike, you have a note for the south bay. >> i do. just a big change. there was no light rail service until sunday when you saw at the niners game, limited light rail service restored. the orange line green line, check vta.org for specifics on your route. that's the note this morning. as the volume starts to build right on schedule for the freeways, here's north 101, that bit of slowing we see from 680 to oakland road right here on the map you also notice from the map everything else south bay, peninsula, clear. across the san mateo bridge and the dumbarton bridge no problem. of castro valley. problems thra

county, highway 37 with your slowing and the cline of the bay bridge. happening today, caltrain is expanding its service. it's significantly increasing the number of trains it returns during peak commuting hours. there will be four trains from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and again from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in addition, the agency's baby bullet train will -- is back which essentially cuts time from san jose to san francisco. it's 5:42 right now. coming up, continuing coverage of the caldor fire burning near lake tahoe. we're going to tell you about the areas where people have been told to leave immediately. we're tracking the latest developments as the flames inch closer to lake tahoe itself. gunfire and explosions continue outside the kabul airport in afghanistan. evacuation flights under way with more than 24 hours for the u.s. to get out. what happens to the thousands of americans left there on the ground. we're going to talk about that and much more ahead for you here on "today in the bay."

right now, let me get you ready to head out doors. pleasant hill, starting out in the 50s in the morning. at lunch time we're at 82 and it does continue to heat up. another warm day in the inland east bay. the heat coming down and our smoke clearing out in just a few minutes. pleasant hill, pleasant

right for bart. a few more cars, little less spacing going on. see how that affects the bay bridge toll plaza and the usual suspects for your first slowing. breaking news from overnight and the advancing caldor fire south lake tahoe, some of that area under evacuation warning this morning and bart and memorial hospital is being evacuated. firefighters say that the caldor fire experienced, quote, rapid spread. the fire has burned more than 263,000 square miles or an area larger than san jose and oakland combined. state lawmakers will hold a special hearing today to address some of the biggest challenges the state faces fighting wildfire. they will brainstorm new solutions to prevent future catastrophic fires. the hearing starts at 10:00 a.m. at the state capital. to the ongoing u.s.

withdrawals from afghanistan where the taliban has taken control. earlier this morning rockets struck a neighborhood near kabul's international airport. new video just coming in to our newsroom showing the smoke billowing in the air as you can see right there. there are reports of gunfire in the neighborhood shortly after. just over 24 hours to go hundreds of american citizens and thousands of others who want to leave are still there on the ground. "today in the bay's" tracie potts watching the developments from outside washington for us this morning. good morning, tracie. >> laura and marcus, good morning. the rocket attacks like you were just showing making it difficult for those people to leave. the president was briefed on that one early this morning. a statement came out just after midnight here from the white house. in the meantime the u.s. military trying to move hundreds of americans and thousands of afghans out of the country, but it's becoming increasingly dangerous as we get closer to tomorrow's deadline. >> reporter: this morning,

reports of a rocket strike and gunfire near kabul's international airport. after an explosion sunday. signs of danger as the u.s. continues evacuations ahead of tomorrow's deadline. >> all we can do is mitigate risk. we cannot eliminate it. >> reporter: the full u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan is set to happen by midnight tomorrow. today the urgent push to get americans to safety. >> we have about 300 american citizens left who have indicated to us that they want to leave. we are very actively working to help them get to the airport, get on a plane and get out of afghanistan. >> reporter: the biden administration is pushing back on reports that the u.s. put americans at risk by giving the taliban names of those still on the ground. >> the idea that we put anyone in any further jeopardy is simply wrong. >> reporter: on sunday a u.s. drone destroyed a vehicle believed to carry suicide bombers planning another attack on the airport. critics say after tomorrow it will be hard to go after isis

terrorists without sources on the ground. >> we have little leverage to extract additional americans or afghan allies from this landlocked country. >> reporter: on sunday the bodies of 13 service members killed in last week's attack arrived home. >> just my baby. yeah. my baby. >> reporter: casualties in a war ending at great cost. with so many people still trying to get out of afghanistan, the taliban telling the u.s. that they will allow people safe passage even after tomorrow's deadline. it's not clear if that will actually happen and the u.s. is trying to get as many of them out before tomorrow as they can. >> right. they need to come out. you don't know what you can trust there.

thank you very much, tracie. 5:49 this morning. want to remind you, anyone who intends to vote in the recall election but you're not registered to vote, will midnight tonight is the deadline to register. forms must be dropped off at registrar's office or postmarked by today, august 30th. online you have until 11:59 p.m. this is to get that registration in. here's a look at some of the key contenders seeking to replace governor newsom out of nearly 50 choices and here are some things a new governor would be up against. starting with what is still a heavily democratic legislature that means barring executive orders, a super majority would still be able to override most policy changes or budget plans. any replacement will be up against the clock. this is because next november california will elect a new governor. and if you have questions about the recall ballot we have answers for you. our scott mcgrew has put together an explainer on how to complete your ballot. find that at nbcbayarea.com/recall or click

on newsom recall in the trending bar at the top of our home page. let's talk baseball this monday morning. for a's fans just what the doctor ordered last night at the coliseum with the national tv audience watching, tony kemp blasted a two-run home run in the eighth inning giving the a's a 3-run win and splitting their four-game series with the streaking new york yankees. the giants are heading to milwaukee, the same city where the atlanta braves once played and hope they have better luck against the brewers. the braves came out swinging yesterday in atlanta. the giants didn't any answers. they lost that one 9-0. >> i hate to hear that. all right. 5:51. take a look at this video. this is new video coming into our newsroom from matthews, louisiana. see how strong the winds were. this is just southwest of new orleans. daylight video showing you some of aftermath, but still those strong winds there just toppling things over.

there's a street sign blowing in the wind, showing you how strong that is. jay gray was saying some of the power lines in the mississippi river this morning, so, yeah, this is already the storm blamed for at least one death, kari and still, now the conditions moving north of louisiana. >> yeah. it's going to really have a big impact as we go into the rest of today. i've been in many hurricanes and definitely feeling the pain for a lot of my friends there. still in the new orleans areas. as we take a look at this storm as it continues to progress through mississippi and into alabama, with some of those really heavy rain bands we're going to watch out for the concern, of not only flooding but tornadoes today as it continues to move to the north. here at home we're dealing with all of the fires and a look at this heartbreaking scene from our sierra tahoe camera. the flames coming over the ridge and advancing closer into the tahoe basin. now we're dealing with the wind picking up, coming out of the west/southwest. over the next couple days prompting a new red flag warning

for all of these areas in the areas of the dixie fire as well as the caldor fire. this, along with the extremely dry fuels we have, and the gusty wind is going to prompt new evacuations as the fire sprez in different areas we haven't seep before. at home we're dealing with a lot of smoke. waking up this morning to moderate air quality but we are expecting it to improve as we go into this afternoon and evening. maybe even a clear sunset as the smoke starts to push off towards the east. then going into tonight as well as tomorrow, looking much better. the caldor fire will unfortunately be spreading over towards south lake tahoe and we'll monitor that over the next few days. still going to be very warm today. our inland areas reaching into the mid to upper 80s. mid 90s for the east bay as well as a high of 93 today in morgan hill, 85 in san jose, but then as we go through the rest of the weekith highs in the low

to mid 80s over the next several days. our winds pick ing up. we get our natural air conditioning so san francisco cooling off. we'll see highs here in the low to mid 60s. mike, you have a look at the bay bridge toll plaza. >> we showed you the slowing on the incline for the sensors. the toll plaza has not shown a backup yet over the course of this morning. it should happen over the next few minutes. it's 5:54. showing up about 6:05. we see slowing on the cline. before the toll plaza and the metering lights jammed up, slowing towards the incline that indicates they'll probably have things slowing and backed up on schedule like we expect. highway 37 with more slowing, highway 4, no blips. everything looking standard and pretty good. happening now for you, san jose mayor sam liccardo getting set to host a town hall on an unorthodox issue or idea requiring the hoemz to use shelters if they're available. daryl steinberg is implementing

his right to housing responsibility to shelter ordinance, some 20 homeless shelters are being built with the idea of housing everyone. critics say the plan will make certain parts of the city off limits to the hoemz. both mayors will take part in a q&a session this afternoon. doctors have an urgent warning for expectant women. get the vaccine. potentially dangerous consequence covid can have otherwise for mom and baby. and nbc bay area and telemundo 48 are honoring local animal heros for our clear the shelters positively good award. head to nbcbayarea.com/positively good to learn more. and submit your nominee today. it's 5:55. you're watching "today in the bay."

we're reporters from the new york times. no flights. no roads. we're trying to figure out what animals are being affected. galápagos is a really challenging place to work. el niño is starting to go haywire. everywhere is going to get touched by climate change.

. welcome back. you're watching "today in the bay." health leaders trying to get the word out to expectant mothers to get their covid vaccinations. new cdc numbers find just 23% of expectant women have received the covid vaccine, but the director for the national institute of health shows research shows unvaccinated pregnant women who become infected often will have more dangerous covid cases. >> pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to getting significantly ill with this and ending up in the icu,

more so than other individuals of a similar age. we need to get the word out there, particularly for pregnant women, that this is not a time to be unvaccinated. >> you can watch the entire report called "covid-19 in pregnant women" on nbc lx. stream it any time on lx.com or watch lx over the air, channel 11-15 or 185 on xfinity. developing now, in southern california, a mountain lion that attacked and dragged a 5-year-old boy has been shot and killed. that attack happened as that boy was playing outside of his home in calabasas last thursday. he was reportedly dragged some 50 yards before his mother came out running to rescue him. that boy is expected to be okay. wildlife officers sent to the home shot and killed the mountain lion crouched in the bushes. dna test confirmed it was the animal that attacked the child. a new investigation is under way after a tesla driver using

the partially automated driving system slammed into a florida highway patrol cruiser over the weekend near downtown orlando. the tesla narrowly missed the trooper who had pulled over to assist a disabled car. the man in the tesla and the map in the other car were injured. the ntsb opened a formal investigation into tesla's autopilot driving system after a series of similar collisions with parked emergency vehicles. right now at 6:00, the caldor fire advancing into the tahoe basin with evacuation warnings now in place for south lake tahoe. but california not alone this morning in facing threats of a national disaster. >> tropical storm ida slamming the gulf coast as those in louisiana wake up to a new reality after a powerful category 4 storm moved in over the weekend. we have complete coverage. this is "today in the bay."