it's heavier than others. now that's continuing to push off to the east and elsewhere we're seeing a steady background with another wave of heavy rain approaching san francisco and into participates of the north bay. as we see the yellows on storm ranger that indicates some heavier, more intense rainfall makes it difficult to see if you're out there as well as the water quickly starting to pond on the roadways. a steady rainfall that has been moving in for the past couple of hours. we are under a flood watch for all of the bay area. this water coming on top of an already saturated ground. now that we're going to see the excessive rainfall we're expecting creeks, streams and rivers to really rise quickly and also street flooding a major possibility. let's go hour by hour.

this is coming in waves. there may be breaks as we go into noon to 1:00. look at 5:00 this evening, it gets lit up here from san francisco on northward where the rain could get really intense. we could see 40 to 50-mile-per-hour winds and this heavy rain continues into the evening. now let's turn to "today in the bay's" pete suratos live in san francisco where the city is still recovering from the storm over the weekend and, pete, folks will be lining up there to get sandbags. >> reporter: speaking of city officials they say the rain was a bit more than they expected. that emergency operation center in place for the upcoming storm. we are in front of the public works operation center, they are

out of sandbags so are expecting to get more this morning. social media pages when they will update people on when they can get the sandbags. this is just a sample of what we've seen the past couple of days. they are out, it is the second day in a row. when you can pick them up but this storm is also affecting parts of the north bay, specifically the glass fire burn scar. it's not a recent fire but did take place in 2020. it hasn't received that much moisture. if we get that heavy dump of rain it could lead to serious run-off in the area specifically in the mountain hawk drive area where you saw several dozen homes destroyed from the glass fire. in fact, here division fire

chief is talking about those concerns and they saw some of it back in september. >> we saw the effects of what the rain can do to that rain scar. the amount of rain that came off the scar led to a lot of floodings. we could have that same type of reaction or worse. >> reporter: this is video from 2019, a landslide in sausalito so, again, if there's rain there will be concerns there. surprisingly the woman survived in that situation. now on top of this rain as terry mentioned we expect high wind gusts in the higher elevations in the north bay. we want to send it over to vianey to talk about the chp warning with the slick roads out there, vianey. thanks, pete. the minute it starts raining that really kicks up the safety concern out on the roads. a live look now at the bay

bridge. you can see it looks pretty good but as the rain picks up it will get more intense. one of the major concerns on the roads as the storm moves in is the danger of standing water. now this is video from this weekend's storms. you can see drivers became trapped under flooded underpasses, and this is what it looked like as a san francisco woman made her way to the north bay on saturday. chp says when you encounter standing water, be sure to proceed with caution. the water becomes a barrier between your tires and the roadway and can cause you to skid or run off the road. here is what the agency says you can do to avoid that. >> the natural inclination is to hit the brakes and swerve. the best thing, the only way to get out that have is to remain calm, maintain the vehicle driving in a straight line. take your foot off the accelerator so the tires slow down enough they're able to get back in touch with the roadway and regain traction. you'll be able to drive straight through that. >> keep in mind the rain brings

up oil from the roads which contributes to the slick conditions. when your windshield wipers are on, your headlights are required to be on as well. and if you do encounter something hazardous like mudslide, rock slides or standing water, get to a safe space first, call 911 and play it safe. everybody slow down out there. i've seen a couple of spinouts. this will be a tough commute through today and as that standing water continues to pond on the roads it will probably be an issue as well through tomorrow. right now southbound 680 in san ramon near the crow canyon exit there is what appears to be, chp reporting this, a vehicle off on the embankment. i'll bring you an update coming up in just a few minutes. sounds good. we'll check back with you. 6:05 now. happening now power outages are expected to be a big concern later today. right now as you can see from this pg&e outage map there are only a few minor outages popping

up in san francisco. to prepare for potential outages, pg&e advises keeping phones and laptops charged, and if up home loses power, use flashlights not candles to avoid a fire. make sure you have fresh drinkingdrink ing water supplies and ice on hand. another tip, freezing big containers of water in case you need them ahead of time. finally if you plan to use generators be careful and, of course, if up see any downed power lines near your home don't touch them. calm 911 or pg&e to let them know and let the pros handle it. you can stay up to date with our storm coverage on nbc bay area. you can stream our newscast on our website at nbcbayarea.com. you can also watch on roku. select the live tv tile on your home screen and scroll down to channel 133 to find us. and if you have a samsung television just head to channel

1035. more ways to watch our newscast whenever you want and even if you're on the go. with this new storm not only does it bring another round of rain, it brings more snow to the sierras. a dangerous mix for anyone who maybe makes a mistake and heads to tahoe. >> you had to look for those windows of opportunity. "today in the bay's" cinthia pimentel joins us with how much snow is expected with this storm. close to 100 inches by the time we are through and through and like kevin cooper was saying up there in tahoe, it's a situation we have to wait, watch and seep as the storm rolls on. a dangerous mix with not only rain, snow, but also strong winds. let's take a live look at highway 50 in south lake tahoe. roads are slick, icy. i was looking at data, some resorts like here at tahoe, kirkwood, have seen 4 to 6 inches of snow in the last 24 hours. many people, of course, looking forward to getting up there in the sierra in the new year.

now is not the time. we have a winter storm warning in effect this morning. this is the pink that you see right there on the sierra, 8 to 14 inches of snow around the basin and, of course, more could pile up on the higher elevations this will be paired with strong wind gusts around 100 miles an hour or more at the crest. whiteout conditions are possible on the roads. be prepared. check on road conditions, have an emergency kit with extra clothes, water, all that stuff to be ready to go if you must travel. now as the rain and the snow continues, our models are looking at a few more feet of snow in the coming days. from now through this weekend into next week we could be looking at those totals like i was saying close to 100 inches by kingvale. 92 in kingvale. 48 in south lake tahoe. 90 inches of snow possible in kirkwood. i'll be keeping an eye on that for us. >> one year it was piled so high they were running out of places to put it because the snowplows

have to go through. >> and they can only lift it so high. >> we're monitoring that. kari hall has been updating throughout the morning. what's the latest? >> it's difficult to travel here with the rain coming down. we see widespread rain across the bay area, tracking it with storm ranger. yellows and the reds on the radar moved through the east bay and that's starting to lighten up just a little bit. take a look at this next wave just off the coast moving in to san francisco, san mateo county and starting to pick up again for marin county as well. heavier rain has been coming down for antioch and concord, getting lighter for the tri-valley and we have this light, steady rain in san jose. as we see it's not as heavy in some of our valleys like san jose. the storm has a lot to work its way through the bay area.

we can see the storm here, winds will pick up. it has already started and continues through 10:00 tomorrow morning. we're going to see gusts at about 30 to 40 miles an hour as well as the coastline and the mountains. 70-mile-per-hour gusts will bring down trees, have impact to power and make it very difficult to drive. let's talk about when we start to see the winds picking up. at 10:00 we see 44-mile-per-hour winds at half moon bay. 47 in san jose. look at this evening. 8:00. 61-mile-per-hour winds in half moon bay and 52 in san jose. also gusty elsewhere as that wind continues into tomorrow. we'll talk more about the rain in a few minutes. vianey, a lot of problems driving out there. there really is. chp has issued a high wind advisory for the benicia bridge.

you heard kari mentioning the gusty conditions. definitely stop and go. i think at this point it will be something you want to drive safely in. a reminder, we did have that big storm over the weekend that left a lot of canyons closed. notice here expect to hit a lot of traffic right near the interchange along 680 in sunol as they work to pretty much clear the mess up and we have more rain on the way. another stretch that remains closed is near felton right there highway 9 in both directions from vernon street to glengary road because of a mudslide and that is still close to now. no eta on when that is expected to reopen. we keep a close eye in through 880. so far no issues there or the south bay. slow down. i've seen a couple of solo

spinouts. back be to you. >> vianey, thank you. 6:11. our storm coverage continues ahead. first, a look at the school closures today, even before the worst of the storm arrives. those include mills college children's school in oakland, pacific boychoir academy in oakland, the athenian school in danville and the girls' middle school in palo alto. >> we have a lot of ways to get school closures and any other storm impacts. we'll scroll them on that ticker and of course the nbc bay area app is free to download straight to your phone. customize it for your neighborhood.

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right now at 6:14 on your wednesday morning we are under a microclimate weather alert. waves of heavy rain moving in, the next rain hitting san francisco as well as marin county with some intense rain on our storm ranger radar. we will see a lot of impacts here from the heaviest rain totaling up to 8 inches and 40 to 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts, floods, mud slides, power outages and downed trees all possible. we'll go hour by hour and talk more about what you can expect coming up in a few minutes. and those bridges are starting to slow down right now westbound 80 to the bay bridge looking at about 12 minutes westbound 82 to the san mateo bridge, 13 minutes. westbound 84 heading to the dumbarton bridge, metering lights are officially on at the

bay bridge. everybody please slow down and be safe. out to the futures this morning, wall street will open mildly higher after the markets kicked off on a sour note. dow, s&p 500 and nasdaq closed in the red. the usual suspects, interest rates, high inflation, recession. tesla tumbling 12% on disappointing delivery numbers. 6:16. breaking news in to our newsroom this morning. san francisco-based sales force will lay off about 10% of its employees. the company also says it will close some offices as part of its restructuring plan. it's still unclear if any of the bay area offices will be impacted. this is the latest company to undertake cost cuts in a challenging economy. trending this morning our very own raj mathai prepping for the storm which is now here in the bay area. >> it's going to be a little rough tomorrow. >> raj says he's been living in the bay area more than 40 years, it's the first time he's had to

use sandbags. he made some friends along the way, shared that the bags are a lot heavier than he expected. >> hopefully he got enough and set them out there in the right way. yep, the storm is already here in the bay area. we're seeing some of the impacts already as well with some spinouts, flash flood warnings we'll keep in mind for the winter weather advisory in the sierra. so much going on not to be exaggerated. people need to be prepared. >> absolutely this is really going to have a big impact because we just had a big impact storm just a few days ago and then we have another one when we didn't really have time to recover and so we are seeing the rain picking up here with storm ranger showing a lot of yellows and reds just off the coast showing more heavy rain, but it is pretty steady elsewhere, and we are going to continue to see wave after wave of this kind of rain not only today but tomorrow as well. so as we see in mill valley as well as lucas valley moving

through san rafael and then down to san francisco, south san francisco seeing that heavy rain, but it's also been picking up for antioch, discovery bay and brentwood and also for concord. it's getting a little bit lighter for livermore but also for milpitas and san jose, sunnyvale seeing some of the lighter rain moving through right now. but we've been talking about this storm, how it intensified as it moved over closer to the bay area, and it's also picking up a lot of energy and moisture from the hawaii area. it's traveling all the way across the pacific, and that's the reason it is an atmospheric river. but it's also going to pack a lot of heavy rainfall. but it's coming in waves, so at times there will be a little bit of lighter precipitation moving through. here we are at 9:30, we see a lot of green here, even some breaks by 12:00 to 1:00 this afternoon. but we're also going to be gearing up for the brunt of the storm to hit us this evening at 5:00 we see a lot of bright reds here.

we will have the potential of flooding, downed trees, even small hail and lightning as we see all of this rolling through this evening. a lot will be going on. scattered showers through tomorrow afternoon. if you are driving you do not drive over where water covers the road. turn around, don't drown. even 6 inches of water can knock you off your feet and carry you downstream. about 12 inches of rain can sweep away a small car. we have the concern about mud slides, debris flows with the rainfall rates that are about half an inch of rain per hour, it doesn't really have a chance to absorb in the soil, and it just runs off and that could be running as fast as 30 miles per hour with mud going downhill with a major mudslide. we're going to see this

possibility continue going into the weekend. storm after storm coming through, one for saturday into sunday, monday into tuesday, another one behind that. it's going to be quite busy here and we'll keep you updated as we look at the seven-day forecast, only some brief breaks in there on friday and then after that there isn't much of a break so we're going to continue to see these impacts through at least next week. vianey, you've been watching the roads. how is it looking? we've had a couple of solo spinouts. the bridges are starting to get busy. a live look right now at the san mateo bridge. chp did issue a wind advisory and we also saw an overnight fog advisory but that rain is going to continue to be a problem in through 680 around pleasanton and sunol because that stretch remains closed in both directions. also anything around highway 17 we have to monitor closely. debris flow over the weekend. highway 9 will remain closed because of the earlier mudslide cleanup, and i mentioned as well

in through the interior we've had a couple of solo spinouts. it looks like this one managed to clear out, which is good. one thing i have noticed on the chp reports it appears to be pretty quick as far as chp activity popping up when they see an accident, they have a route they've been preparing for this storm. if you get into any trouble make sure to pull over into a safe spot. we'll keep a close eye on the flooding and the roadways coming up. >> thanks for keeping tabs on all of us. >> our storm coverage continues on "today in the bay." but first, damar hamlin still in critical condition after his collapse during "monday night football." we'll have an update this morning and the touching tribute from the 49ers when we return.

welcome back. it's 6:24 right now. still no plan to resume the "monday night football" game that suddenly halted when bills' safety damar hamlin suffered cardiac arrest. right now the attention is fully focused solely on the young athlete's health and well-being. >> maggie vespa with our team on the "today" show in cincinnati with an update on hamlin who does remain in critical condition. >> reporter: scott and laura, good morning. our second morning here outside the icu since damar hamlin, the buffalo bills safety, collapsed

on the field, the result the team says of cardiac arrest. on this second morning we have potential good news. hamlin's uncle telling reporters overnight that he is needing less oxygen than he used to though he remains intubated, telling reporters doctors have flipped him onto his stomach in part to help drain blood from his lungs. medical experts tell us that will be standard practice in a case like this. people across the country hoping that improvement continues. a lot of questions and conversations about the nfl and how they handled the moment when he collapsed from praise from the doctors and medics who sprinted onto the field to help hamlin to questions and criticism as to why the nfl took an hour to postpone the game in the wake of that collapse. >> i don't think there's anything you can change from a game play but i do think if the nfl called that game a lot sooner, it would have sent a message loud and clear to the players on the field, to players around the league, to the fans in the larger nfl community, we take our players' health and safety seriously.

this game is irrelevant now. we want to make sure this young man is good and he's clean and he's okay and, of course he's not going to be okay after something like that that soon. >> reporter: the big update the family telling reporters they do see signs of improvement. he is on oxygen. the next hopeful step would be to get him breathing on his own. laura, scott? >> well, let's hope. the 49ers among those thinking of damar hamlin. you can see an image of his jersey on the video screen outside levi's stadium. it is 6:26 right now. our microclimate weather alert team continues as the powerful storm is here. meteorologist kari hall has been tracking it all. she has an updated time line for us. >> reporter: plus, the neighborhood here in the east bay preparing to be flooded again like they were this past saturday. we have a trio of steps to prepare yourself and your home for the storm.

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startingng at just $49.99 a a month. plusus, you can n save upup to 60% a a year whenen you add comcast t business m mobil. oror, ask how w to get upp to a $ $750 prepaiaid card. complelete connectctivity. one solulution, for r wherever b business takes s you. comcmcast busineness. popowering posossibilities. and we are on storm watch this morning. the first bands of a powerful storm system move into the bay area this morning. good wednesday morning to you. i'm scott mcgrew. >> and i'm laura garcia. we stream live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online. let's take a look at storm ranger. look at all the green and yellow out there. a lot of rain falling throughout

the bay area. in fact, bay area counties already activating emergency centers anticipating the arrival of the worst of the latest storm. >> and we have the best team coverage. our vianey arana tracking the slick roads, cinthia pimentel monitoring the waters, bob redell in danville with flood concerns, and ski resort kevin cooper will come up at 6:45. we'll start with meteorologist kari hall leading our coverage. how are we looking right now? it's wet all across the bay area. we've seen heavier waves of rain moving through and that first initial wave has pushed into the east bay and has kind of stalled out here, so we're still seeing a lot of that rain moving through contra costa county, and then we have another wave that's moving into marin county as well as san francisco. we're tracking all of this with that red scan there, our mobile doppler storm ranger. it's parked on san bruno mountain. we can see how much rain is

falling right now and where it is the most intense. this gives us a very high resolution view of the rain that's moving through the tri-valley and it's getting a little bit lighter for san ramon but picking up in oakland and it's also been picking up in san jose as we're getting a lot of yellow here right there on 280 and also on 101. so the drive is really difficult but we are also seeing the storm intensifying off the coast as it taps into that tropical moisture that's going to give us a lot more rain as we go into today as well as some gusty winds. as we take it hour by hour there will be some times where it gets lighter and maybe your opportunity to get out and run some errands if you haven't done so already. here we are at 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, there are some breaks in there. we're also going to be bracing for the brunt of the storm coming in at 5:00 this evening for the north bay, moving into san francisco. this is when we'll have the potential of more flooding as

well as downed trees and even more of the flooding that we've seen over the past few days. this will continue for the evening. we'll be watching that. vianey, you've been keeping an eye on the roads. the bay bridge is not too bad. i think people took our concerns and warnings seriously. i am noticing less of an impact on the bay bridge than we typically see around 6:30. the metering lights are on. another thing i've noticed as well chp response has created several flood logs for us to keep track of roadway flooding, ponding water that can happen into the overnight hours as well. overnight we can expect to see the rain really pick up into the evening as kari mentioned. the bay bridge had an earlier issue at treasure island cleared. we've been keeping a close eye along highway 87, typically a spot that sees flooding. another update is coming up. emergency agencies across the bay area bracing for the onslaught of wet weather. they want us to be ready as

well. >> many are staffing up. "today in the bay's" bob redell, that area saw some flooding earlier this week. >> reporter: you are correct. good morning to you, laura and scott. we're along el capitan drive here in danville which flooded. there's still mud in the streets, a thick layer of mud on the sidewalk. you can hear the drains at least are open now. you can hear the water from the rain right now going down there and dispersing. the concern is, of course, this upcoming storm could flood the neighborhood again. that's why if you see that house there in the background you have houses like that where they put sandbags up in front of their driveway. this person looks like they put a tarp as well and have it in front of their entryway because they don't want to have what happened saturday happen again. further north in contra costa county where we are at the fire protection district tell us they have boats ready for any possible swift water rescues and this is something that could

happen after flooding they witnessed last weekend. 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 this life threatening situation that requires immediate response. >> reporter: the police department in emeryville sent out messages last night summing up what all of us can do to help. these are things you want to do before the storm or if you haven't done it yet and you find a break in the rain, something you want to consider. make sure all the storm drains and gutters are clear of debris, down spouts are pointed away from your home. stack the sandbags to divert water away from flood prone areas and be aware for the potential of power outages. reporting live in danville, bob redell, "today in the bay." authorities in san mateo county are warning people to be ready to leave if their homes are in vulnerable areas aincluding the county's southern

coastal areas and neighborhoods within that czu wildfire burn scar zone. with the potential slide danger is heightened. the county advising everyone to plan ahead and they remind everyone you don't have to wait for an evacuation order. leave if you feel your safety is at risk. emergency managers are warning this storm might cause power outages and even force people to leave their homes. we want to make sure you're prepared. >> consumer investigator chris chmura here with three important steps to take right now. >> reporter: good morning. first, you can get ready to evacuate. can you pack a go bag full of essentials. keep that bag 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 medicines, some clothes, water, nonperishable food, et cetera. think about the basics you might need if you end up in a shelter for a few days. second, prepare your home for a possible power outages. if you have sensitive electronics consider powering

them down and unplugging them now 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's some good news. the usda says a refridge traitor will hold its temperature for four hours if you keep the door closed. the freezer is better. the usda says a half-stocked freezer will keep food frozen 24 hours. fully stocked, 48 hours. third, think about your insurance. a typical homeowner's or rental policy does not cover flooding. you have to buy flood insurance separately. 98.5% of california homes do not have it. as of last check the national flood insurance program said 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.

>> we'll have many more in the future. water levels right now are already high for many bay area creeks and reservoirs and that's before the brunt of the next storm arrives. >> cinthia pimentel is here keeping an eye on creeks and rivers. >> creeks and rivers running high and could be a dangerous situation in the next 24 hours. let's go live to the north bay. a live camera in fairfax. it's a little dark, but if you look right there on the left of your screen, you can see the water is moving. not a major concern this hour but we'll keep tabs on it as the day goes on. creeks and rivers in the south bay, a lot of data on these graphics but we'll break it down for you. we have the river stage on the y axis and the date and time on the x axis. this is the guadalupe river at almaden expressway. the flood stage is 8 1/2 feet, forecasted to reach 5 1/2 by

tomorrow morning. there is a mandatory evacuation for the unhoused, move out of these areas for their safety. in the santa cruz mountains we have the san lorenzo river. flood stage there is 16 1/2 feet. by tomorrow morning we could see it go over a foot of that and that's the orange with the purple trend line. when it comes to our state's reservoirs percent by percent, inch by inch, they have been rising filling up the largest full reservoir in the state, shasta, oroville and trinity lake. together they are at 32% of total capacity for this date. i know it seems like a small number. we're going to get more rain and snow. we'll get those to fill up. we're not losing hope just yet. >> definitely not. we keep having all these additional storms hitting the bay area. the windows are so small

it's like, oh, we're losing some of this water. it's overflowing. we're looking at storm ranger where we're seeing the heaviest rain as well as marin county. san francisco picking up on heavy rain but it's stalled out here along parts of the delta and parts of contra costa county. we're seeing that rain for the past hour or so. this is a look at the wide view. it's impressive to see how this storm has wound up there and tapping into deep tropical moisture down to hawaii pumping it into the bay area. we'll see a lot of impacts here. looking at 2 to 8 inches of rainfall with the heaviest coming this evening. and the winds have started to pick up. going to peak into early tomorrow morning that could

break down trees but also with the heavy rain, mud slides and downed trees that will be possible with all of this going on even the potential of thunderstorms later this evening. so we're going to see a lot going on. make sure that you are prepared to allow extra time for your commute. vianey has been looking at the roads and bridges. you are looking at the richmond, san rafael bridge. a look at the view there. with rain, the biggest concern safety wise are the roads, seeing the rain coming down in richmond. you can see the camera there and the rain ramped up through the afternoon which causes concern for flooding on the roadways. localized flooding. through parts of san francisco, keeping a close eye on that through the south bay right now. no big impacts there. i want to bring something to your attention. if you're going to be heading anywhere near san francisco tonight and then also the

warriors game that will start at 7:00 p.m. 280 last weekend was a spot where we saw flooding in new year's eve forecasts. we saw that bump up 2 to 3 inches in through the afternoon. we'll see that ramp up tonight, so if you're heading to the warriors game, public transportation probably up best bet just to play it safe. i'll send it back to you. you can follow vianey and kari on twitter as they track the storm and the road conditions all morning long. they're constantly updating you on conditions in real time and don't forget you can get a look at the interactive radar on our website nbcbayarea.com. we will continue our storm coverage ahead on "today in the bay." bracing for that new round of snow in the sierra. we'll take you live there to learn the conditions this morning as to what resorts are

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right now at 6:44 we are under a microclimate weather alert. stormranger lit up. we are seeing a wave of heavy rain just kind of stalling out over contra costa county. i'm tracking all of this. we'll talk about the impacts of this atmospheric river coming up in a few minutes. and i do want to talk about your mass transit. b.a.r.t. did tweet out that during wet weather they may run at slower speeds which means it could make the wait time at stations a little bit longer. muni telling commuters to allow

extra time to travel and caltrain is warning of potential service delays because of the weather. we'll keep you updated should any delay happen. full details of your traffic report coming up. let's take you out live to capitol hill this morning. some dubious history playing out for the soon-to-be seated congress. for the first time in 100 years there's no decision on house speaker. in a few hours house lawmakers will go back at it, hold another vote. but yesterday top california republican kevin mccarthy failed to secure enough votes from his own party. a group of hard line republicans leading the resistance. mccarthy, meanwhile, offering concessions ranging f committee seats to rule changes. now until there is a consensus all other house business remains on hold. on the democratic side new york's hakeem jeffries made history yesterday by becoming the first black minority leader. it is 6:45 right now.

a live look outside this is palisades ski resort in tahoe bracing for the onslaught of new snow after this latest storm moves through the bay area. >> and thanks to the latest snow survey, the snowpack is already higher than it normally is this time of year. joining us live is resort consultant kevin cooper. thanks for waking up early, kevin. you're in south lake tahoe. tell me what it's like out there right now. it's about 28 degrees. we're looking at some cloudy skies. winds haven't started to pick up yet. we're expecting the winds to be anywhere between 80 and 100 mimes an hour. we're looking at a lot of snow over the next several days. we're prepared. we're getting ready. it will be a wet and wild week ahead. >> the wind is already coming on. >> yeah, it's starting to approach the sierra. the county and state teams up here as well as the city teams are ready to go.

if you are thinking of coming to the sierra, please do not. this will be a major event. we're already digging out after the last set of storms. the county, state routes will be a big challenge up here. we're looking at a duality, rain and snow. if this system comes in warm, we're going to have a quick melt out here, street flooding, a lot of challenges. if it starts to freeze, that's something of the hardest driving conditions you can experience in the sierra. wet underlayer with snow on top, that's dangerous and a challenging time. and a lot of snow on the trees, heavy snow. if this comes in heavy and wet liberty and nevada energy are preparing us for power outages across the entire sierra. >> kevin, you mentioned snow and rain and ice. i'll raise you one and that's wind that will make things dangerous as well. >> absolutely. whiteout conditions on the roadways especially over those passes and even in town.

we're looking at winds down in the town area just down to 6,300 feet, between 40 and 50 miles an hour. that's going to make it challenging for the snow crews to get out there and remove the snows on the city and county streets, and for the ski resorts the mountain operations teams will be challenged. avalanche danger will increase. >> all right, kevin cooper joining us live. thank you for those updates and stay careful out there. >> certainly we're excited we're getting so much great snowpack up there. we certainly need it, but it is a concern when you have dangerous conditions. >> dangerous while it's falling and afterwards we enjoy the sights of it. you do have to be really careful. we are still seeing the snow starting to get to the sierra as that rain moves through the bay area. it's been picking up here for the past couple of hours. we can see on our storm ranger, our mobile doppler radar the heavier bands of rain moving into the coastline as well as

san francisco. where it's yellow and red, that shows really intense rain over contra costa county. you actually have the same tool on your smartphone if you have the nbc bay area app or go to the website, you can actually tap on our storm ranger, and then can you zoom in to your neighborhoods, see what's going on and you'll be able to do that throughout the storm. we are seeing some really intense rain for mill valley, the richmond/san rafael bridge, pretty hard to see there as well as the bay bridge as you come over from oakland into san francisco as some of our other roads have been also really difficult to drive on. but it's just now starting to get going with a little bit heavier rainfall moving into the south bay. milpitas on 680 is also picking up on some moderate rain. this storm has greatly intensified over the past 24 hours. and it's tapping into the subtropical moisture slinging it right into the bay area. we're going to have a lot of problems here but there will be some opportunities to get out there and assess the damage, see

what's going on and then prepare for the brunt of the storm. i'm stopping the time line right here at 12:30. notice that there are some breaks in the rain in some spots. not all of us will see those breaks, but it does look like it does get lighter at times. and then we're getting ready for this, that wall of water that's going to pick up. high winds, possibly some thunderstorms and small hail. and this is also when the winds will be the greatest. flooding a possibility as it comes down hard and fast throughout the evening. this is going to have such a big impact on the evening commute, but it continues into overnight. we're at 8:00 still seeing a lot of reds and oranges here, really intense rainfall and then waves of it coming through for tomorrow morning. gradually it will start to taper off tomorrow evening. the big threat here will be flooding, and if you're driving do not drive over where water covers the road. we always say turn around, don't drown, because just 6 inches of water can carry away an adult.

it will knock you over and sweep you down. and then about 12 inches of rainfall can sweep a small car away. 18 inches can sweep away a truck or an suv. we also have the concern of mud slides and debris flows. all of this waterlogged soil can start to slide downhill even if the rainfall rates are at about half an inch of rain per hour. it's too much to be absorbed into the soil and especially this will be bad in burn scar areas looking at the potential of mud slides that could travel 30 miles per hour or greater. that's all of that mud rushing downhill. we're looking at more big storms ahead and all of this a definite possibility with the next storm coming in on saturday into sunday. on monday into tuesday we have another storm. and then right behind that we could see more storms lining up and moving into the bay area. so not a lot of breaks here. we only see a brief break on friday but, of course, we are focused on the near term with this big storm that's been

intensifying and moving through the bay area. those impacts really increase this evening. even already, vianey, you're seeing impacts on the roads. we are. we've had a couple solo spinouts, hopefully everybody is okay. another thing that i want to bring up will be mass transit. i know i talked about the warriors game and heading there. however, we did see some impacts as well so be mindful of this. b.a.r.t. tweeted they may be running service at slower speeds because of the rain. the ferry is tweeting the possibility of that. muni says allow extra time to travel and there could be some possible service weather delays for caltrain. follow those on twitter. i'll send it back to you. >> thank you very much. happening now evacuation orders already in effect in one part of watsonville due to potential flooding. it covers neighborhoods near the salsipuedes creek and the pajaro river. areas particularly susceptible. police officers went door-to-door letting people know they had to leave. two shelters were available overnight for those who needed

somewhere to stay. we'll continue our storm coverage just ahead including those concerns about flooding as the storm moves into the bay area. new warnings as well for the recent neighborhoods and recent burn z.ones

it's o official, a america.

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and welcome back. the first bands of the strong winter storm now moving into the bay area. a lot of concern about flooding and outages and very, very strong wind. >> "today in the bay's" pete suratos joins us live in san francisco this morning. there's still time for people to get sandbags, but in some cases no supplies, i understand. >> reporter: that's right, laura. they are out of sandbags here in san francisco at the public works operations yard. i want to show you this line that's forming already as the

big rig truck passes by. there's a line forming for the sandbags. a worker tells me they won't have the sandbags until about 12:00 p.m. still you have that line forming. the big issue here they're going to keep an eye on the flooding. of course there was a lot of flooding this past saturday especially in the low lying areas. we're talking 17th and folsom where they saw the flooding. any repeat on saturday's storm could be bad news for the area. in the north bay fire officials will monitor the glass fire burn scar. it could lead to potential run-off as well as potential landslides so, again, in the north bay they will keep an eye on that burn scar. we'll continue to monitor and provide any updates as they come in. live in san francisco, pete suratos for "today in the bay." >> thanks, pete. >> reporter: and i'm bob redell live in danville. good morning to you, scott and laura. this is bob redell live here in

danville. we're along el capitan drive this is a neighborhood that flooded heavily this past saturday during that storm, and the good thing is i can hear the storm drains are working right now. the concern is will those storm drains back up like they did on saturday. you can see perhaps in the early morning sun light, still mud on the road, thick mud on the sidewalks, and you have homes like that one right there where they still have sandbags. they clearly have them up now along with a tarp in front of the garage doors and entrances because they're concerned about what the storm could bring. further up north in contra costa county we spoke with the fire protection district yesterday and they were telling us they are prepared for the loss of human life. their one concern is flooding, and that's why they have their swift boat water rescue teams on the ready in case there is that kind of flooding and they have to go out and find people. for more on this weather, kari?

we've been tracking with storm ranger. you can track it, too, on your smart device as well as even your laptop computer, nbcbayarea.com or the app. we are just talking about this, vianey. we've only had a tenth of an inch of rain so far. we're seeing flooding, spinouts, and also we're looking at morish be use as we have the potential of about 2 to 8 inches plus of rainfall over the next 36 hours. it's going to come in waves. the brunt of the storm hits us at about 4:00 in the afternoon for the north bay and then it just continues to spread across the bay area with thunderstorms, really intense rainfall, and those high wind gusts. kari, as you mentioned, we have a lot of clogged areas and local surface streets seeing the problem. i want to report quickly westbound 580 there is an accident at livermore. and that is going to start to cause some delay in addition to that mass transit could see issues as well. we're keeping tabs on everything. don't forget our nbc bay area app is a really great resource

free to download. can you get up-to-the-minute weather alerts sent straight to your home and can even customize it for your neighborhood. >> we'll have updates throughout the morning and on our 11:00 a.m. news. good wednesday morning good wednesday morning. another day of chaos on capitol hill. >> who will be the next speaker of the house? it's january 4th. this is "today." >> republicans in turmoil. >> a speaker has not been elected. >> kevin mccarthy falling short in three rounds of voting to become house speaker. something that hasn't occurred in more than 100 years. >> it may not happen on the day we want it. >> the next vote hours away, but republicans no closer to deciding who will hold one of the most powerful positions in the nation. a live report from washington