rafael bridge right now.. where the lo osed. ncrete is falling kpix 5 news and who begins with "breaking news." chopper 5 is at the richmond san rafael bridge right now where the lower deck -- deck is completely close

because concrete is falling from the upper deck. chp has just arrived at the scene. here's a live right -- look right now it how it is affecting traffic. you can see all of that in the red so traffic is really backed up over the water. these are ground shots where you can see that backup. the shots just came into the newsroom right now. you can see it is slow going basically like a parking lot. anyone heading into that area, if you know anyone please avoid that area right now. in the past it few minutes, chp sent out these photos of the fallen concrete. we will stay on top of this breaking news, we have several crews headed to the scene right now and we will bring you updates as they become available. our other top story this noon, the ntsb is being called in to investigate this fiery gas line explosion , in san francisco yesterday. good afternoon everyone. >> about 300 customers in that area still do not have gas, 24 hours after that

and burn for more than two hours. here is the aftermath on the finger- pointing. >> reporter: it turns out this is a verizon wireless object fire cable project. the company has released a statement calling the incident tragic and say they are grateful for the first responders who ran towards the fireball when everyone was running away. here's a first look into the hole, and the new yellow pipeline. as crews are making progress and restoring gas service. for two hours yesterday afternoon, it looked like on earth. a ruptured gas line spewed 40-foot high flames for two hours. as water from the fire hoses drain down into the hole at times it looks more like a volcano. people any -- eating inside the restaurant which was just several feet away thought it was going to be their last mail. >> we are just thankful we are alive. the whole building is gone. do you see that? >>the crew that hits and rupture the gas line was

from nasdaq. a third-party contractor hired by verizon. as soon as they hit the line they scrambled and no one was injured. >> that is a miracle. >> reporter: elizabeth hawkins and her husband lives in the gray building just a few doors down from the blast. the so-called water curtain kept the flames from burning down the whole block and save their home. >> one of the policeman came down during the fire, and took pictures of our place to give us an update even though he could not let us down the street. we were very grateful. >> reporter: pg & e is facing criticism because it took crews two hours to shut off the gas. it turns out, to do so they had to dig into the asphalt by hand using shovels. the company says it was too dangerous to use anything else. by law, the contractor is supposed to ask pg & e to come out and mark the locations of the gas lines and pg & e must comply within two days. it is unclear if any of that happened. they are cooperating with the inth suspected

d robb. chopper 5 flew over the scene 30 minutes ago between harder road and katie court. you can see a lot of patrol units on the scene there. at one point we found four people handcuffed on the ground. here is a closer look now, this is happening near glassboro elementary. the school went on lockdown this morning, but that has since been lifted. police say there is no threat to the school. officers are focusing on an apartment complex in the area. police have not released any information on the robbery or the suspect description. contra costa county authorities are looking into the cause of a fire that killed a bethel i live moment. it happened in a mobile home park on gateway road, just before 1:00 a.m. four people inside the home were able to escape, but a 62-year-old , a dog and not forecasted not make it orefigh took about an hour to extinguish flames. the cause is under investigation.

a stretch of 280 in san jose is back open after a tanker fire shut it down. the chp says it happened just before 8:00 p.m. last night after the rear brakes caught fire. you can see flames right underneath the truck right there. fortunately the driver was able to pull onto the shoulder near saratoga avenue. no one was hurt. a live look at the nation's capital were members of the senate judiciary committee , as expected, have approved the president's pick for a new attorney general. california senator, diane feinstein opposed the nomination citing william barr's past criticism of the special counsel's investigation into russian election meddling in 2016. the nomination process goes before the full senate where it is expected to injure final approval with a vote along party lines. virginia has political turmoil continues to grow this noon. the top three government leaders are all embroiled in controversy. the latest, attorney general, mark herring who admitted on wednesday that he wore black

face to a college cons -- party in 1980. after governor ralph northam was caught in a seven controversy. >> i am a loss for words. i am appalled that we voted for these people. >> we need to ask ourselves, how much value there is in dredging up these wounds of the past? >> lieutenant governor, justin fairfax is on the hot seat. stanford university fellow vanessa tyson says that the 2004 democratic convention in boston, kissing turned into a sexual assault. fairfax has denied her allegation. all three men remain in their jobs. students in oakland right now are preparing to stage a massive check out tomorrow. a group from skyline high posted this today asking students to kick off the rally at 9:00 a.m. at oakland tech high school.

students will march to broadway and 11th street outside of the oakland unified school district offices. they are standing in solidarity with their teachers who voted monday to authorize a strike if they can't reach a deal with the school district. teachers are calling for higher wages, smaller class sizes and more support staff. still ahead, a bay area musician loves to rake in more awards in music's biggest night. [♪ music playing ] >> blues musician, fantastic, opens up about the city that raised him. plus, the online banking outage affecting cousins -- thousands of customers nationwide. it is a cool but dry afternoon. things are about to change. tracking our next weather system that will bring the rain for us. i will show you futurecast coming up without live look with a mostly cloudy skies. we will be right back.

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breaking news... the c-h-p telling us they are about to close both directions of the richmond san rafael bridge. the problem: let's get you back to our "breaking news." the chp telling us they are about to close both directions of the richmond-san rafael bridge. this is the problem. concrete chunks came raining down from the top deck. you can see on the left-hand side of your screen right now , pictures of those chunks. they are pretty big. you can see they are at least bigger than a fist. doctor cause a lot of serious damage to cars. also causing possible harm to drivers. chp really wants to make sure it is safe before letting any cars over. we just that bdge. phone withd l there

are live pictures fromyocan see it is really, really backing up traffic. richmond-san rafael bridge. taking a look at the map here you see green over the water. this is going to be all red because traffic is at a standstill right now as they are closing both directions of the richmond-san rafael bridge. it is noon right now. not as much traffic out there as there would be later this afternoon. obviously it is going to be a domino effect with the commute , the rush-hour starting and just about three hours. again, both directions of the richmond-san rafael bridge being closed because of these concrete chunks that have fallen from the top deck. ta a long tie able to turn around or get across the bridge and no

wherever they are going. thfr see that backup is just really bad right now. >> officials have said to try to use alternate routes. obviously if you vardy major way onto the bridge and you are stuck in that position. as we take a live look from chopper 5 you can see how long it is from one end of the bridge to the other. those cars are not moving right now. a ground picture of some of the traffic in the area obviously from richmond to san rafael connecting to the 101. that is a major thoroughfare into the city of san francisco. as we continue to take a look, none of the cars are moving. we are going to stay on top of this all afternoon and keep you updated online as well as our social media websites. heads up if you are a wells fargo customer. the bank is reporting a nationwide outage

with their online banking and mobile apps. wells fargo says the issue is due to a power shutdown at one of its facilities which began after smoke was detected. the bank treat tweeted this saying although we apologize for customers who may be expressing an issue with our online banking and mobile app. thank you for your patience while we research this issue ago. let's take a look at weather right now. you are in the weather center tracking the storm that is coming. >> a dry day today and then the rain returns by tomorrow. we are tracking all of this with a series of storms i will be moving in across the bay area. you can see patches of blue but also clouds as well. temperatures are in the low 50s after a cold start to the day. concord, livermore, san francisco 51. 53 san jose and santa rosa 50 degrees.

more rain is coming for us. e ap sending and that cold canadian air for us. that is why we are seeing those chilly mornings and cool afternoons. our next storm system that will bring the rain for us beginning tomorrow. timing and offer you on futurecast, here we are in the afternoon. mostly sunny to partly sunny skies. as we go through friday morning, check out the rain moving in. this is 6:00 a.m. with widespread rain as we had through the afternoon tomorrow into the evening. this is at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow on futurecast. scattered showers saturday. and then we are tracking a cold low-pressure system for sunday. that will likely drop snow levels down sunday night. we could see possibly down to 2000 feet. it will also bring a lot of snow for the sierra. winter storm watch in effect for friday afternoon through sunday.

snowfall amounts to-3 feet. sunset at 539, our sunrise tomorrow at 707. daytime highs today low to mid 50s in the afternoon, for the rest of our afternoon. mid 50s in fremont, san jose looking at oakland in the mid- 50s as well. the pebble beach forecast looking at mid 50s with the sun and clouds, rain for tomorrow. there we go with that 70 forecast with rain chances friday through the weekend and into next week. we will be right back. another live look at the richmond-san rafael bridge were chunks of concrete have fallen onto part of the bridge. we are staying on top of this and we will be right back right after this. narrator: okay, everybody, let's do the numbers. cache creek casino resort has over 1700 penny machines, and we pay three to two on blackjack.

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chopper 5 showing us the very latest picture we have from the richmond-san rafael bridge as traffic is stopped. traffic has been stopped in both directions at this hour. this happened originally around 10:30 when a chunk of concrete fell from the upper span down to the lower span. you can see the backup of traffic here from chopper five. the problem is,

as kenny pointed out, once you get on the bridge you are stuck there. i believe this to be the san quentin exit in marin county. if you're able to get off they have been doing some construction work on that exit and on-ramp as well. if you can get off there you are able to get back onto 101, go north and then shoot over eastbound on 37 and vice versa. that would put you on i-80. the ground pictures here showing you the backup. people are just absolutely stuck this noon hour. the problem will be as this trickles into the evening commute. we vardy seen a lot of people in san francisco , they just forgo the bay bridge they do not want to deal with it. they go north across the golden gate bridge which is the fr dirtion they don't ve to pay e toll. they go up to the bridge to go east , again that is the free direction to get to the east bay. there is a good idea of what the backup looks like again, both directions closed. this is a picture

of the piece of concrete. that is a good chunk of concrete that fell about 10:00 a.m. this morning. it did hit one car. the big concern is , is there a structural damage to the bridge ? we will go back to chopper 5 that shows you this is a very frustrating situation for a lot of people. a lot of contractors, a lot of businesses -- -- business is done along the richmond-san rafael bridge. traffic is gridlocked. people are getting out of their cars. there are cars pointed in both directions because people did try to turn around and get off the bridge. there is no fighting this, you are stuck. the big concern obviously is the bridge structurally intact.

they are going to have to move those cars out of that lane because he cannot give either. the lower deck of the bridge opening a third lane going eastbound. the lower span goes eastbound, the upper deck goes westbound into marin county. they were doing a lot of construction during that time. whether that had anything to do with it, we do not know. obviously those chunks of concrete are a big concern, not just because they didn't -- they had a car. no word of anyone being injured. the big concern is what kind of damage has taken place. what is occurring with the bridge structurally? expect delays.

that is an understatement. we will have to see how long this goes throughout the afternoon. kenny and michelle, when we get to the evening commute it is gridlocked around the bay area. if this artery is closed we are in big trouble. >> no doubt. rush-hour starts earlier and earlier nowadays. you had a good point, a lot of people trying to avoid the bay bridge from san francisco they will take the bay bridge up north 101 and go to the richmond-san rafael bridge. not today. look at what a mess it is right now. we are going to go to kpix 5 photojournalist, scott eason near the scene right now. >> reporter: yeah, what i am seeing, you are spot on with people getting out of their cars and looking around, trying to figure out what is going on. chp is down here at the san quentin exit. they are moving people , reverse down the on-ramp or those that have managed to turn around are working their way off the bridge slowly.

as you can see, it is pretty jammed up out there. other than this little gap right here, you have nothing but cars facing the wrong direction to get off this bridge. people that are way out there , i feel sorry for them. i do not know what they are going to do, they're going to be there for a long time. >> scott, have you talked to anyone in the area about what they are planning to do , what are you noticing? >> reporter: no, i have not been able to get up onto the bridge. i got out here just before our noon show started. i got a little time to shoot some video. i set up this live picture. it looks like there are some walkways that i can probably get out there in a little while. i will not be able to bring you any live pictures. >> i don't want to interrupt you, but what i am seeing on our screen is some traffic moving along that lower deck. that is good news for people stuck in there. maybe

chp is going to allow those people stuck on the bridge through so they can get where they need to go. they obviously cannot turn around, it is too hard to go in the opposite direction. it is looking like that lane of traffic is actually moving over the bridge and that will help clear up some of this gridlock. >> i think what we are seeing here, as they are letting a few cars grew in 19. this is probably the traffic that got stuck on the bridge. i am sure there are not going to allow anybody else on. at least clear out the people who were stuck there? >> reporter: that is going to be a ripple effect. it is good to see some of the traffic moving through right now. initially chp said they did not have an idea of when this would reopen. we are seeing some cars going through right now. we are joined by one of the officers from the chp right now. tell us exactly what is happening on the bridge right now for the lower deck.

we are trying to get in touch with andrew barclay from chp right now. can you hear us? we are having a little bit of difficulty getting in touch with our chp officer. when he saw the photo earlier, it said chp said they were golf ball sized concrete chunks. looking on social media, there was a picture of someone holding his hand right near a chunk of concrete. it's obviously a lot bigger. this is a huge concern because there could be structural damage to the bridge. no timeline in terms of when they will figure this out. >> now we are going to talk to chp andrew barclay grade are you on the phone? >> i am. >> good see so of tic ving theu st trying to get those cars stuck in the gridlock over the bridge but not let anyone else on? >> exactly. that is the plan right now. we understand people were initially stuck behind the closure. our concern

getting them off the bridge, but obviously we need to do that safely, that would involve us making sure no more concrete would be falling as were trying to get across. >> we are seeing the lower part of the bridge going east, what about the upper deck of the bridge when do you expect to open. >> reporter: right now .-dot is getting the eastbound traffic cleared off. that is not going to be an opening. to get us to be able to do that, we had to close that top deck because all of the traffic coming across bounces .doc up and down causing the concrete evolve. right now, we need to get the lower traffic across and we can reevaluate from there as well as looking at the top deck to see any of the concrete has fallen. >> i want to get an idea of how much concrete is actually falling. we have seen pictures of

these chunks. some of them look golf ball sized , some of them look bigger than a fist. >> reporter: -- >> those were the pictures we posted is social media. those were the ones we initially found when we got on scene. there was still some concrete falling. >> we have to say goodbye right now as we end our broadcast. we will keep an eye on the story all afternoon. we will have another update in 30 minutes or less on kpix 5 news and our digital streaming platforms. we will see backer 5:00. have a great day everyone.

>> brooke: [ gasps ] >> hope: what is all this? >> brooke: i can't believe you two! [ laughs ] >> hope: mom said you were just bringing breakfast. >> katie: oh! >> donna: well, she's not the boss of us. >> katie: yeah, and i -- i did bring breakfast. you know, i can't vouch for its nutritional quality. it's pastries. >> brooke: [ gasps ] breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day. >> katie: no, brooke. you know what the most important meal of the day is. donna? >> donna: the next one. >> katie: the next one. yes. >> brooke: [ laughs ] >> donna: yeah, and besides, uh, uh, croissants have eggs, uh, flour... >> katie: mm-hmm. >> donna: practically cereal. >> katie: yep. >> brooke: you know, none of us liked card games when we were growing up, so this is what we did. >> donna: yeah. did we ever actually finish on