right now at 4:30, storm watch. a powerful storm system arriving at this hour in the bay area. we're issuing a microclimate weather alert. ahead, live team coverage on the warnings from officials and states declaring emergency. >> kari hall, our meteorologist, breaking down the hour-by-hour outlook. this is "today in the bay" streaming live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online. good morning, everyone. it's wednesday. i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington is going to take the week off. >> that's right. and i'm laura garcia. this morning many people across the bay area waking up to more wet weather. our storm ranger is tracking the

rain right now. multiple bay area counties already activating emergency centers to help residents during this storm. >> we have live team coverage from road closures to flooding. our bob redell is live in danville with the current conditions there. vianey arana timing out the commute, and meteorologist kari hall is tracking the storm. we'll start with kari. we're looking at storm ranger where we can see the rain is already moving through all of the bay area as you wake up and head out this morning. some of the heaviest rain is right now falling in parts of the north bay and san francisco. it's moving to oakland and danville as well pushing into the east bay. as we get a closer look, the radar is lit up with the rain getting a lot heavier in parts of the tri-valley. it's just now starting to move in to san jose with lighter rain. we'll see it continuing to get heavier as we go throughout the rest of the morning. as we zoom out, we can see all of the storm that has to work through the bay area, this atmospheric river, with that tap

of the tropical moisture extending all the way over to hawaii. that will enhance the rainfall. but as the center of the storm gets closer, we will see those winds increasing as we go into this evening. going hour by hour, once again it's just widespread across the bay area. we are going to see that continue but at times it will break up around 11:00 to noon, even by 1:00 we could see some breaks in the rain but take a look at that big wall of water coming in at 3:30 to the north bay and then once again getting heavier as it moves across the rest of the bay area for the evening. so that's when we will see the brunt of the storm hitting the bay area. and for now on the preparations, we're going to head over to "today in the bay's" bob redell live in danville and that was one of the areas that flooded over the weekend, right? >> reporter: and you can still see the remnants of that. good morning to you, kari. we're along el capitan drive in the city of danville.

there is still mud on the road, and if you look beyond you can see that home there, this home is like a number of homes in this part of el capitan drive. they have sandbags in front of their garage doors, in front of their entrances because they saw what happened here on saturday when it flooded and, of course, they don't want to get hit again with the storm coming in now. there is some rain starting to come down. video further north here in contra costa county. the fire protection district has their boats ready for any possible swift water rescues. this is the flooding they witnessed last weekend. con fire believes it's almost a given this storm is going to threaten lives. >> the extent our residents can prepare now to avoid those risks will help all of us to be able to focus on the really life-threatening situations that require immediate response. >> reporter: the emeryville

police department summing up what all of us can do to help, make sure your storm drains or gutters are free, down spouts are pointed away from your homes, stack sandbags to deflect water away from the flood prone areas and you want to be ready for storm power outages, the possibility with the storm. last saturday we had a lot of rain. this storm we could have a lot of wind which could cause more problems. for more on what it's like on the roads this morning, over to vianey. vianey, i know it's going to be dangerous out there today. yeah, thanks, bob. we saw the impacts of that weekend storm close highway 101 from san francisco, on ramps, off ramps, and right now as the storm begins to make its move, we are starting to see the wet roads. notice the bay bridge toll plaza, no metering lights just yet but i do want to show you the overall traffic map. the green you see here aside from the roads is our sensor that picks up where the rain is starting to come down. notice we do still have,

unfortunately, that whole stretch in through sunol. going to see some issues because niles canyon road is still closed in both directions. we're also going to be looking at closely, of course, down through highway 1, your tri-valley drive times. 580 from grant line road to 680. 680 from 580 vargas road ten minutes. any updates we get we'll send to you. >> thank you very much, vianey. a live look in san jose where a state of emergency is now in effect for residents. san jose is also issuing a mandatory evacuation order for unhoused people living near creeks. city leaders say the rising creek levels will be dangerous. there's also a state of emergency in danville and san mateo county. flood risks there continue to be a major concern. people in san francisco in the north bay are taking this very seriously. one item on demand are the sandbags bob was talking about.

look at the cars waiting in line. public works ran out, urged people to check back at 8:00 this morning. "today in the bay's" terry mcsweeney has more on the actions locals took even after leaving empty-handed. >> reporter: a limit of five filled sandbags per car. that's what san francisco public works was doling out to the line of cars waiting for these free bags stretched for blocks and blocks from the evening into the night until some drivers had to be told there's no more. >> we've given out more than 9,000, closer to 10,000 sandbags since saturday. for the last couple of days we have been working very hard to source sandbags from wherever we can in northern california. >> reporter: lots of customers at this self-service sandbag station including mary beth rece whose flood anxiety is born of experience. >> i want to be prepared because it was a mess the last time our house flooded. we lost everything.

you have to just throw everything in the dump and start over. >> reporter: this location near the red hill shopping center still had lots of sandbags but very little sand remained this is a lasting impression for the people on sausalito boulevard. the 2019 landslide that took an enl tire house down the hill with a woman inside of it. she somehow survived but the memories are still strong. >> the rain tomorrow is supposed to be accompanied by a lot of wind and that is scary. and so, also, the ground is saturated and adding more rain to it makes everybody nervous. >> reporter: at goodman's hardware in mill valley, tarps and rain gear are not easy to come by. sandbags are sold out. it may be an indication people are taking the warning about this storm's strength very seriously. terry mcsweeney, "today in the bay." now there are some counties and cities still offering free sandbags, rain or shine. we have a running list on

nbcbayarea.com. you can see the closest site to your home. we'll be having all sorts of storm coverage ahead including the expected snow coming to the sierra. a look at ad changes coming to twitter. the relaxed approach the company is taking.

we are under a microclimate weather alert right now at 4:40

as we are seeing the rain rolling all across the bay area. some of the heaviest of that rain right now hitting parts with intense rainfall as you head around the richmond and oakland hills area. we'll be watching this and will talk more about high winds in the forecast, how much snow we'll get and the impacts of the storm coming up in a few minutes. and thankfully things are looking okay so far as that rain begins to pick up, there is a likelihood we'll get some impacts as far as flooding on the roads. bridge drive times now, a smooth commute to the bay bridge about seven minutes. take that extra time and please slow down and drive safe. let's check in with business and tech. good morning, pippa. good morning. i'm pippa stevens from cnbc. wall street is set to open higher after the markets kicked off the new year on a sour note, the dow, s&p 500 and nasdaq are closing in the red as concerns about rising interest rates, high inflation and recession

weighed on investors. tesla tumbling 12% on disappointing delivery numbers. in focus today data on manufacturing, job openings and auto sales plus we'll get the minutes from last month's federal reserve meeting. and apple's market value falls below $2 trillion for the first time in nearly two years amid a continued slide in the company stock. the downturn reflecting worries about production issues for the iphone maker and whether consumer demand will hold up. apple has lost nearly $1 trillion in market value over the past year. twitter plans to expand the political ads it allows on the social media platform after banning most ads in 2019. the company is relaxing its policy for so-called cause-based ads that call for people to take action, educate and raise awareness for campaigns such as social equity causes or civic engagement. like other social media platforms most of twitter's revenue comes from ads accounting for about 90% of

sales last year. scott and laura, we here in new york are watching your weather closely today. hoping it's not too bad on that front. >> well, it may be, but we'll do the best. pippa, thank you. 4:43. our team is tracking the power storm taking aim at the bay area. ahead on "today in the bay," meteorologist kari hall has a look at your forecast. we'll have a look at your morning commute as youead out th he

welcome back. you're watching "today in the bay." the first sierra snow survey confirming what centers have been saying all along about the recent snowfall. the snowpack right now 177% of normal for this time of year. here is a look at yesterday's measurements near highway 50. the snowpack there measured about 55 inches adding up to the best start in 40 years. it will still take months of above average rainfall and snowfall for california to emerge from the drought. >> that's okay. we'll take what we can get. bay area reservoirs sitting at higher levels than they have in a long time. uvas reservoir more than 100%. last year there were times it was less than halfful.

>> it's important to see the reservoirs across the state fill up from the rainstorms and the snowpack is very important for us because all of that run-off in the spring will fill up the reservoirs as well. >> it is highly likely some will be spilling over during the height of this week's rainfall and we know that it is already here. it may not be in your neighborhood just yet but it will be. >> it moved in very quickly with a good amount of rainfall as we get a look at storm ranger, our mobile doppler radar on san bruno mountain. we can see it is covering all of us here as we are waking up and heading out this morning, but some of the heaviest through san francisco, over to oakland and danville as well. we're seeing the rain really picking up in intensity across contra costa county and over to discovery bay and brentwood as

you get ready to step out the door. lighter rain for san jose and sunnyvale as well as saratoga and milpitas. as we open up the view there is a lot more storm that will be working its way through the bay area for today. even though it is starting out with a moderate clip of rainfall, the reason we do have a flood watch in effect for the bay area that starts this morning. this rain falling on a saturated ground could cause streams and rivers to rise quickly. do keep an eye on that as well as the potential of some street flooding and be prepared to take actions. we're going to take the rainfall today reaching about an inch and a half to possibly over three inches of rain in the north bay and all of this water really doesn't have a good place to go because of the saturated ground. you do not want to drive over

where water covers the roads. just 6 inches of running water could carry away an adult, that could knock you over and sweep you off your feet. then 12 inches could sweep a small car downstream. about 18 inches of water could sweep a truck or an suv away. this is how we most commonly see people drown or fatalities in flooding events is people in vehicles. now we look at the rain impact. we're expecting about two to possibly eight inches of rainfall. as far as when it could top out at 40 to 60 miles an hour, the wind starts to peak this afternoon into tomorrow morning. we're looking at the possibility of power outages and downed trees. a damaging wind impact, a high-wind impact that has just started but it continues through 10:00 tomorrow morning.

some mountain gusts may reach 70 miles an hour. weapon see the winds pick up at 10:00 this morning. the peak of it look at half moon bay. san jose 52-mile-per-hour wind gusts especially in the hills. and then in the north bay 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds so with the saturated ground just that little bit of wind will knock over some trees and keeping an eye on all the trees around your property. we'll start to see the rain picking up in intensity later on this morning. then there is a brief break early in the afternoon before the heaviest of the rain and the gustiest of the winds start to really pick up for today. there's only a brief break between this storm as it moves out, another storm for late saturday into sunday and then a third storm possible on monday. we'll continue to see these impacts over the next several days.

vianey, the roads are just starting to get wet. is there any impact on the roads? there is wet pavement out there. we know as the rain accumulates, that's when we start to see the ponding water and issues really lining up for on ramps, off ramps, creeks, all of that. san mateo bridge, it's moving along. i have noticed some slow spots start to form. you can see the rain coming down on the camera. i do want to remind you of spots that remain closed. these impacts actually closed these spots from the weekend's storms, niles canyon, both directions closed. we do have 9 in both directions because after mudslide, working to repair that. we'll bring you any updates as they become available. emergency managers warning this storm might cause power outages and even force people to leave their homes. >> consumer investigator chris chmura is here with three important steps you can take right now.

>> reporter: good morning. first, you can get ready to evacuate. you can pack a go back full of essentials. keep it by the front door or in the trunk of your car. emergency managers recommend things like a phone charger or two or three. a few days' supply of medicine, clothes, water, nonperishable food, et cetera. think about the basics you might need if you end up in a shelter. second, prem your home for a possible power outage. consider powering electronics down to avoid a possible shock or power surge. side note about your fridge during a power outage. you can crank it colder now, and here is good news. the usda says a refrigerator will hold its temperature for four hours if you keep the door closed. the freezer is better. a half stocked freezer will keep food cold 24 hours. fully stocked, 48 hours. think about your insurance.

a typical policy does not cover flooding. you have to buy flood insurance separately. 98% of california homes do not have it. the national flood insurance program says only 204,000 california properties carry a flood insurance policy out of 14 million housing units according to the census. one call to an agent can change that. fair warning, insurers tell us it takes about 30 days for a new policy to kick in. too late for this storm. back to you. >> thank you, chris. california's office of emergency services is ready to go. the agency's fire and rescue division planning on responding to multiple overlapping emergencies all this week. the swift water search and rescue teams placed in marin, fire engine task forces, helicopters and other resources have been mobilized. our storm coverage continues april head all morning long. first coming up next on "today in the bay," damar hamlin still recovering after him collapse

during "monday night football." an update on his condition from his family. meanwhile, happening now evacuation orders in effect for one part of watsonville due to possible flooding. the order covers neighborhoods nearby. last night police officers went door-to-door letting people know they had to leave. two shelters are available for thoseho need somewhere to w

we have a live look at the bengals' home football stadium in cincinnati. the nfl is saying there is no plan to resume the monday night game that was halted when damar hamlin suffered cardiac arrest.

the attention is focused on the young athlete's health and well-being. >> hamlin remains in critical condition. outside the hospital fans continue to gather to pray for his recovery. a long time 49ers consultant dr. harry edwards is calling the incident a sort of perfect storm of unexpected terms. >> nobody is to blame. the athletes take the risk. they know it cannot be reduced any further and it comes down to luck. and sometimes the luck runs out. >> one of the many tributes to hamlin outside buffalo, you can see the waters of niagara falls lit up in bills' blue. the 49ers posted an image of a jersey on the video screen outside levi's stadium. hamlin's family has issued a statement thanking everyone for their support during what has been an incredibly challenging time. all morning long we have live team coverage on this

storm. storm ranger, in fact, tracking it all. a look at the radar. meteorologist kari hall is timing it ou

this morning we are issuing a microclimate weather alert as a strong storm moves into the bay area. good wednesday morning. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington is staying dry.

"today in the bay" is streaming live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online. we have team coverage from flood watches and landslides to the impact the sierra is seeing due to this winter storm. our team ready with what you need to know to stay prepared. some dangerous driving conditions. the chp is asking people this morning to stay home if you can. more on into ahead. first, meteorologist kari hall. what are the conditions looking like right now? rain is covering all of the bay area as we track it with storm ranger, mobile doppler radar. some of the heaviest pushing into parts of the east bay. pretty much all of contra costa county and northern alameda getting in on heavy rain. moving into san francisco as you cross the bay bridge moving over to oakland, danville, as well as livermore, san ramon, dublin. it is a lighter rain for milpitas in san jose. down to morgan