i'm tara moriarty live in san francisco where rain is sweeping through the bay area. we'll tell you where it's going to hit hardest and some trouble spots for drivers coming up. as the death toll from the quake and tsunami continues to rise, the situation is getting more critical. plus the steps some bay area universities are now taking to protect their students studying in japan. that's all ahead on the ktvu morning news.

good morning, thank you for waking up with us it's wednesday, march 16th i'm pam cook. let's check in with steve paulson. >> we do have cloudy skies. light rain tapering off as the rain is moving through. steady rain in the north bay. you can see it's sliding south, but there is not much of a break in the cloud cover. look for lows in the 50s with decreasing raining. highway 24 lafayette looking pretty good heading up to the tunnel this morning. it's wet as we have been mentioning. also this morning's commute will be okay in oakland but the rain has just moved through here as well. let's go back to the desk. we begin this morning in the situation in japan where they are desperately they are trying to prevent a meltdown at the nuclear power plant. helicopters have been sent in to dump water on the plant's

reactors in an effort to cool them down. for a time today the 180 workers remaining at the plant had to leave after a serge in radiation levels. reportedly up to 70% of the plants fuel rods may have been damaged. centers have been set up near the plant to test people for radiation exposure. the death toll continues to climb. nearly 3700 are now confirmed dead. jana katsuyama joins us now. she is on the phone with the very latest developments. what can you tell us about what is going on today? caller: first of all i wanted to mention i heard you talking about the workers at the plant. you have to applaud them for going back in. you know, they were at one time evacuated and they had been staying there despite the larger evacuation order you

know of some 200,000 people. they were staying there to try to secure the location, trying to do what they can to help. and it's you know just inspiring to see and i think an example of the sense of the japanese people here pulling together and everyone trying to do whatever they can to help with the situation. here in tokyo, it's very cold and there is a cold front that is descended over the country you know it is march but it's snowing up there in the region. that will not help all of the evacwees that are in shelters or people that don't have power or supplies necessary. >> and jana can you tell us have they made any headway in getting more supplies and power to some of the areas? caller: it sounds as though they are doing what they can. it's difficult. the rolling blackouts are continuing.

i just saw an announcement by one of the officials saying they are planning to continue that today as well. the rolling blackouts they are hoping will help them meet all of the power needs here. it really is a dire situation and you know it's one which it's changing by the day and that can be i think i said before unsettling. >> you're in tokyo where there's not nearly as much damage. a lot of fear continues. you talk about the bravery. a lot of people working at the nuclear power plant. people going out looking for people in the hard hit areas. we're talking about university students heading back home. some of them ordered to come back home. families wanting people to come back home. what is the mood in tokyo as far as businesses? people working there or perhaps based here in the united states are people leaving? are people staying? how do they feel about what is

going on? caller: pam, i have been talking to a lot of people the realtives and friends that -- the relatives and friends that have been working here. there are some people saying absolutely get out. i spoke to a pilot today that said his wife and children left the country as most of his colleague's families. and you have people that are saying no i have confidence that the japanese government is going to be able to solve this problem or at least contain it. we're not afraid. we will stay. certainly though there have been some countries i understand france and other countries that have decided to try and issue warnings pull people out, tell people not to come here for unnecessary reasons travel. and so i think that the big unknown here is what will happen with that nuclear power plant. that is something which is difficult to predict. >> yes, certainly that is a big

concern. jana katsuyama there live reporting for us from tokyo. thank you so much for joining us. caller: all right, pam, thanks. here in the bay area a group of scientists is keeping an eye on the radiation levels in japan and assessing the potential danger to the united states. the national atmospheric release advisory operates out of the lawrence-livermore laboratory. scientists say they have not found any evidence the dangerous levels of radiation of japan would reach the united states but they are continuing to monitor wind changes and rain patterns. people here in the bay area specifically worry about radiation drifting here from japan they are heading to pharmacies and driving up the price of that iodine is up supplements. it usually sells for $6 a pill now they are selling for $18 if you can find them.

medical experts say ki can provide some protection against some types of radiation. the u.s. surgeon general here tell us people here do not need to worry about the fallout but she understands. >> i'm not sure there is a level of need right now in certainly the health officers are monitoring. we are monitoring and will alert the public if there is ever a real threat. >> potassium iodine can cause side effects so people should check with their doctors before using it. california state university students studying in japan are now being asked to return home. csu says some students are not in areas directly effected by the earthquake or tsunami, but possible shortages in food and other supplies and of course the increasing risk of radiation are cause for concern. uc berkeley has 17 students studying in japan. they are not required to come home at this point.

35 students from stanford who are given the option to return are on their way back. steady rain is falling in a wet week in the bay area. tara moriarty is on storm watch for us this morning. tara, where are you and what is it like? >> reporter: we're here in san francisco where it's been drizzling pretty steady since we arrived. forecasters say a lot of that heavier rain should be coming in around 6:00 this morning. one of the things you will notice on a day like today is that there is a lot of car spinouts. this is due to people driving too fast because of the rain. the chp is reminding you to drive the speed limit or lower. the weather created quite a few problems for folks in sonoma county. this was the scene late in the afternoon just north of the russian river. a landslide dumped mud and debris under the roadway and blocked both lanes for several

hours. it's the only way for people who live in the mountains to get to gernville. west of petaluma some motorist decided to take a chance and drive through that standing water. others decided to turn around. at the petaluma river still above flood level. if we come back here live we will show you some of the things we are monitoring. this is the chp website that lists the accidents and the weather conditions. there there are any landslides or rock slides we all of course pass that information along to you. we are here live in san francisco i'm tara moriarty ktvu channel 2 news. let's go out to sal to find out if the roads are wet. which areas are the worst? >> the roads are wet as tara mentioned. one of the things we are watching is how much of an effect it will have on the

morning commute as she also mentioned we do have a lot of people that tend to drive too fast because of the conditions. let's take a look at the live pictures. if you want to get out there now, it's a pretty decent drive out there. there are a few but for the most part you can see the roadways are doing pretty well here. as you can see traffic coming up to the toll plaza looks pretty good here. westbound 80 coming up to the toll plaza area. also this mornings commute is looking good on northbound 280 getting up to highway 17. so we don't have a lot going on right now. so far it looks pretty good as you drive around the bay area. 4:40 let's go to steve. thank you. a front is moving through. we still have bands of rain that are sliding by. the heaviest part looks like yesterday in the north bay. there is scattered amounts. you can see the system is sliding through but there is

going to be a lot of cloud cover here. there is still a little bit offshore. after that goes through we will see a decrease. the main band has moved south. still there could be embedded heavier showers. there is plenty of moisture streaming in so don't look for a sunny day. we'll have a lot of cloud cover. very mild conditions. 50s ons temperatures. 55 hayward. and 55 san jose. a stronger colder system will be digging down. that will occur on friday. it will take us into sunday. it was very mild and warm yesterday we had 70s. some morning rain showers and a lot of clouds. cool to mild but so much moisture in the air. it will not be as warm today as we had yesterday. especially in parts of the peninsula, east bay, and south bay. today a lot of upper 50s and low to mid 60s probably at

best. morning rain and then turning cloudy. back to you. the tsunami in japan has local counties preparing for the future. the areas most at risk here in the bay area if bigger waves were to hit the california coast. and the ripple effect the crisis in japan is having on businesses around the world and a shortage here in silicon valley. good morning, highway 4 bay point traffic moving well heading up to the willow pass grade. we will tell you more about the morning commute and the wet weather and how it will effect your drive to work.

good morning, we have rain moving through now. the main front is beginning to blast through. some of the rain has tapered off. some has picked up a little bit. some shower activity toward marin county. there are breaks in the clouds especially if you head south. >> thank you, steve. the state senate and the assembly both have votes scheduled today on governor brown's budget and tax extension plan. he needs the support of two republicans from each chamber to reach the two-thirds needed to approve a special election in june. so far, there have no indication on how the votes will go. >> the question is will the republicans vote to give the people the right to vote or will they thumb their nose at the voters of california.

>> the five-year extension of taxes would help fund schools. yesterday layoff notices went out to 19,000 school employees including hundreds here in the bay area. a new field poll shows a majority of california voters supporting governor brown's budget plan if it does get on the ballot. the uc berkeley poll shows 58% would vote for it. 39% say no. and 3% say they have no opinion. the economic impact in japan is spreading. japan is a major global supplier of key components from everything to electronics to automobiles. many of the factories that make the items are in the areas hardest hit by the quake, tsunami, and now nuclear concerns. >> we will have shortages of a lot of things probably going through the the end of the year. it will cut back on a lot of

electronic departments. >> microchips have jumped 20% since friday. and when it's hard to predict when they will be back in business, analysts expect prices to continue to climb. we have new video of the tsunami serge that rolled into marin county. someone posted the video on you tube off of richardson bay. take a look at that. taken around 9:45 friday morning no damage. you can see the large wave rippling across the water surface there. that tsunami serge unleashed by the devastating magnitude 9.02 earthquake in japan. one of the bay area best known -- the golden gate straight would limit how much water could pour into the bay and reduce inland flooding but it would also channel all of

that water at alameda and oakland. low lying communities along the bay might be flooded. the force of a tsunami would dispate after it crossed the shallow waters of the bay. santa clara county has a new emergency set up. people with sign up for a mass notification system. by sending a text to the number 32075. you have to declare the word alert sc along with your street name and zip code. you can sign up for that service online and we have posted that link on our website at ktvu.com. pg&e says it's missing key safety documents and today state regulators may be able to find the utility. they handed over 150 pages of records on its natural gas pipelines to the state public utilities commission, but pg&e's president says 8% of

those records are missing. state regulators are considering their options. >> if we lack the information for the public utilities commission to be confident that those pipelines are being operated safely, we will take action to lower the pressure. >> pg&e's president said the utility will voluntarily field test lines and replace 150 miles of pipes similar in age to the pipe that ruptured in san bruno. regulators ordered pg&e to produce records after they learned the paper work was wrong. this morning the list of finalist in the search for a san francisco police chief is in the hands of mayor ed lee. last night the police commission met in a closed door session for several hours. they gave the mayor the name of three final candidates. we spoke to the head of the police commission after last nights meeting. >> reporter: can you tell me

what the breakdown is? >> no we have chosen in our closed session knot to disclose-- not to disclose this. >> we spoke to mayor lee and he plans to take his time in making this very important decision. however, it is clear the police scandal tied to the drug arrest will be a factor in his decision. he will take into consideration how each finalist would deal with this controversy. eight san francisco police officers are accused of conducting illegal searches and falsifying police reports. it has lead to the dismissile of 70 criminal cases most of them involving drugs. a bay area boy lands the high school equivalent of a noble prize. the award he's received. and the new iphone app that can help you save a life.

the damage to the santa cruz harbor hit by last week's tsunami is worse than originally thought. the port director says the damage could exceed $25 million up from $17 million. now that figure includes rebuilding the docks but it does not take into account the $4 million in damage to private boats. 13 boats sank. another 100 are damaged. tsunami waves caused millions of dollars in damage to the hawaiian islands. there will also be a decline in japanese visitors now for awhile which will hurt the tourism industry on the island. yesterday the governor toured the damaged areas of the big

island in maui. today san francisco becomes the first major u.s. city to respond to medical emergencies using cutting edge smart phone technology. the high-tech system involves a special iphone app. those that sign up will get a special mess only their smart phone. east bay city of san ma roan pioneered this decision. a little boy is waking up $100,000 richer after winning this years intel science research. he was also the student that won the scripts national spelling bee aboard four years ago. he is home schooled won the intel award. coming up on 5:00 we want

to check in with sal. i understand there is a new crash in napa? >> reporter: that is right a new crash in napa county and i'm going to go right to the maps. the crash is on old congress road here right near the intersection of old sonoma road. it's hong kong value -- it's on old congress valley road. watch out it's a rolled over vehicle. they are look for a tow truck to arrive on the scene. the conditions for driving around the bay are not good. this accident happened 10 minutes ago. one more time with the location. old sonoma old. this morning in the south bay northbound 280 traffic is moving well. let's go to steve. thank you, sir. we have rain moving through. there is still some one little

band that seems to continue through marin county. that will slide south. after that there is not a lot upstream. there is a lot of cloud cover. you can see right over us nothing too heavy but steady. it is starting to pick up from sonoma county, napa county, and marin county and over toward san francisco. a little bit over toward the east bay mostly cloudy. some of that rain will slide south. the main band that was yesterday evening stacked up about two inches in some of the higher elevations. petaluma had an inch of rain. inch and a half santa rosa. after that we will get a break tomorrow and a colder dynamic system moves in on friday. a lot of 50s on the temperatures. not much has changed. cloud cover today. mostly cloudy skies. morning rain will give way to clouds.

we will get a break on thursday and friday rain returns. it looks like a cold, showery rainy pattern as snow levels take a drop. morning rain and then gives way to clouds. cool to mild temperatures not as warm as yesterday. 70 in san jose and mountain view. upper 50s and low 60s. five-day has showers. a little break tomorrow. friday we bring in the rain. we will hold on to that saturday. pam. thank you, steve. up next we will go live to tokyo where japanese emergency workers face another set back as they struggle to prevent a nuclear meltdown. a remarkable video of a loyal friendship in the midst of that rescuing.

good morning, the increasingly desperate effort to create a meltdown in japan. some rain moving through this morning. how long will it last? we will take a look at it and toward the weekend. plus a reason a major university is telling its exchange students in japan to