caused an accident. you can see the two vehicles here we believe were involved at the top and bottom of the screen. we're told the high jacker ran away from the scene. you can see that emergency medical personnel are on the scene. as many as four people injured. we got information that some of them may be children here. about 30 minutes ago we understand that they were calling the people with the jaws of life to extricate people who may be inside the car. we'll bring you the very latest just as soon as we get it. top u.s. nuclear officials say it could take days even weeks to get japan's nuclear plant contained. officials have tried to use even water cannons. this is an animated model that

shows what could happen to the plume of radiation from that damaged japanese reactor. federal officials say this does not pose a danger but here on the coast, scientists are keeping a watchful eye on that plume. as more people head out of japan into the united states, passengers are coming under new scrutiny as security agents begin screening for radiation. meanwhile, president obama has been trying to reassure americans that we are safe. they don't expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the west coast or any other part of the united states. >> further more the centers of disease control do not recommend the people of the united states take precautionary measures beyond staying informed. >> the president also promised to keep americans up to date on

the crisis in japan. the california department of public health today joined with all of the others who were saying that we don't need to worry about radiation arriving from japan. >> the amounts will be so small as to basically be equivalent to our background normal radiation sources. >> dr. backer also says that americans will be more benefited on preparing on our own big earthquake. and we have the latest information on the evacuations and death toll, sal castaneda tells us what's happening to passengers flying in from japan tonight. but we begin with john fowler about what he's learned about that radiation plume heading to the west coast. john. >> reporter: something is headed our way on the wind and we might be able to detect it with this. this is a hand held radiation

monitor. right now we're showing .12 microsevent per hour. that is a very low amount of radiation. we might be able to detect it on this. most physicists tell us probably not. blame the wind. it's blowing radio active particles from japan toward us. this afternoon, uc berkeley scientists set up this tarp to catch the first rain. the best chance they say for finding those particles. through already monitoring the air through this detector we first showed you last night. at this hour closely monitoring. >> this peak to do this, means that was specific to an iotope. >> i'm trying to not think about it because it seems to

overwhelm me. i can't watch the news anymore. >> reporter: vetter says he expects to find traces of isotops, maybe one% above background. about the same radiation scientists told me you would get if you went up higher in the atmosphere. >> that's about the differential in the background. >> reporter: very low level of radiation. right now the national atmosphering release advisory center at livermore laboratory is monitoring this plume. but they are really only looking at the local effects. they are not necessarily looking at the problems for us in the west coast. come back live you can now see our radiation monitor is hovering about 12 to 14. that's still a very, very low doze of radiation. unlikely however we should emphasize that anyone will have any sort of health effect here in the west coast.

reporting live, john fowler, ktvu channel 2 news. in japan, helicopters, heavy duty fire trucks, even water cannons, workers there are trying just about anything to cool the dangerly over heated nuclear facility. this as we're getting new pictures of that damaged plant. from the air and to ground, an all out water assault on the nuclear plant in attempts to keep a nuclear pool from overheating. these new images released by the tokyo electric company shows the destruction caused by a recent explosion at the number three reactor. smoke is rising from around the reactor. radiation levels remain high around the plant. workers are at risk. residents have been evacuated. >> in their remainder of their life, they have increased the

chances of cancer by a lot. >> reporter: the head of the international atomic energy embassy is on his way to japan to assess the nuclear plant crisis. >> we are getting information from japan. but the flow of information is highly appreciated. i will pass on this message to my counter part in japan. >> reporter: tonight that slow flow and differing notes of what's happening is only adding to the speculation. the situation remains very serious. a bay area man has particular insight in the nuclear plant because he used to work there. >> japanese they say, that's the bottle. bottle in japanese means like old, you know. used, not a very good condition reactor. >> reporter: sugaoca was an engineer and worked at a number

of power plants including the one to melt down in japan. coming up at 5:30, what else he told ktvu eric rassmass and how he never thought something like this would happen. ktvu's jana katsuyama just returned from tokyo after spending several days there. when you left the airport last night how crowded was it and was there any sense of panic? >> well, frank. you know we left the handa airport which is one of the few airports in the tokyo area. there was no sense of panic, definitely order but a sense of urgency. our flight to sfo was packed. it seemed like we got the last two seats. we found bay area people who said they decided to fly home as soon as they could. >> we weren't sure what was

going on with the nuclear situation. we wanted to sort of leave the country and be out of the way. so if anything went worse, that we weren't around for it. >> reporter: just about 15 hours after we left, the u.s. embassy announced they were setting up evacuation charter flights for u.s. citizens. this is video we just got from embassy staff setting up a help desk at the airport. the first evacuation flight took off early this morning. and the second evacuation flight was scheduled to take off six hours ago. and coming up at 6:00, we're -- coming up on the 10:00 news, we're going to tell you about a pilot's family who was evacuated. our plan was to get a car, a

train, a flight up there to the tsunami disaster area. but it was nearly impossible with the nuclear situation, it was very difficult. many foreign press now are pulling back to tokyo or pulling out of the country. >> jana, we're glad you're back and we'll see more reports from you in the future. >> absolutely. the department of security is checking anyone arriving for any levels of radiation. >> in an effort of caution and to make sure everyone remains safe we are doing screening of passengers and or cargo if there happens to be even a blip in terms of radiation. >> u.s. customs and border protection agents say some

radiation has been detected on cargo arriving. some of those flights from japan are arriving at sfo. today we talk to several of the passengers. sal castaneda tells us that at least for right now, what they are saying seems to contradict with what the homeland security head is saying. >> reporter: i'm here at the international airport, some of the arriving passengers may have to be tested for radiation before they can leave the airport. united states customs and border protection agents today said they a started monitoring people and cargo arriving in japanese flights using several types of radiation detection monitors. at seattle seatac airport, some passengers were tested with hand held devices. the passengers coming from tokyo's airport to sfo told us

they were not. >> i wish they had, they didn't do anything. yeah, so yeah, everything was normal. >> reporter: sukuda and his family says they left japan to stay with relatives in san francisco until the nuclear fall out has stabilized. they say getting out of the country has been hectic. while waiting for her son to arrive, takasuka says that her son may have been the delay for testing. they noted no hand wanting or testing of his luggage. several flights came in and took off from san francisco to japan. so far it has been business as usual. now as with all matters of security, the government hasn't told us specifics, but they did want passengers to know not to be alarmed that suddenly they do see people being tested for

radiation. live at san francisco airport, sal castaneda, ktvu channel 2 news. the toll from last friday's earthquake and tsunami in japan continues to rise. with more than 9,500 people reported missing. they say 380,000 people are still living in shelters. president obama tried to calm concerns about the safety of americas own nuclear power plants. the president said he is committed to keeping nuclear power a safe source of energy for the united states. >> nuclear power plants have undergone exhaustive studies and have declared safe for any number of extreme contingencies. but when we see the tragedy like in japan, we have a duty to learn from these circumstances. americans have donated far less money at least so far to

help the victims of the earthquake and sue tsunami and japan. that compared with $296 million in donations during the first seven days following the earthquake in haiti last year. and nearly 250 million in the first week to the victims of the indian ocean tsunami back in 2004. experts says the probably because japan is viewed as being a wealthy country. we continue our coverage and crisis of japan. we are constantly updating it with the situation in japan. that includes the latest stories and the latest video. there's a mystery about what's going on at the caldecut tunnel. we quickly may have figured it out. that story coming up.

and i hope you got out today. we had sunshine, but it's ending. we already have rain in some bay area cities. live storm tracker 2 when we return.

right know voting is under way in sacramento where a state budget solution is proving very difficult to hammer out. ktvu's ken pritchett is live now with the progress and a key issue here that's not being discussed. >> reporter: gasia, we learned just moments ago that the senate has passed the main budget bill, by far the government's plan. however there is significant holes as task yesterday to be done in the governor's plan that includes putting taxes on a special election ballot. one senator i spoke to today said that given that is such a contentious issue don't expect that bill to be introduced this

week. on several of the budget bills, the senate voted and many of those bills failed. today after meeting with senate democrat, governor brown sited assembly republicans and they fired back. >> i don't believe they should hide out and said, we're not talking, we're not dealing and we're not voting. >> i don't think that's true at all. i think the governor is playing a little heavy handed. he had some cooperation and now it's almost turned into ill will. the assembly and senate did pass a significant amount of cuts already. more than 7 billion of the $12.5 billion goal coming from programs such as medi-cal. but a bill to eliminate government agencies has stalled and governor brown has not secured as he desired republican votes to put taxes on a june election ballot. >> where should we go next?

should we double the cuts or should they vote on tax extensions. in a democracy, the people should be heard when it is going to affect their very quality of life. >> reporter: just within the last half hour, the senate passed the main budget bill but there are 20 bills in this budget package and there are several that have yet to be voted on. lawmakers are unclear if they will be back tomorrow to finish work on this budget package. they do expect to still be working on it on monday. in sacramento, ken pritchett, ktvu news. it's been a year since caltrans began the caldecut. tom vacar is live in oakland tonight with a bit of a mystery, tom. >> reporter: frank, it's a $390 million project and you're paying for it.

caltrans called reporters to says the now beginning it's starting a bore. but nothing was running. we've been steadfastly forbidden to go inside and document the progress. this graphic drawing and these still pictures prove it. but even a caltrans camera man told me told he's not been allowed inside. the reason, the possibility of an explosion. >> for example, petroleum can run out or some methane can come out. >> so you have increased ventilation. >> reporter: caltrans classified this as a gassy tunnel. how dangerous is it for the workers? >> we are not working in a gassy or hazardous environment. >> reporter: yet, independent photographers have been denied

entry, saying their cameras can spark. i asked have workers measured gas levels? >> no, we've measured gas levels below the level. it just basically disappears, you can't even measure it. >> reporter: caltrans bay area director called me saying he just learned of this problem and he said of course they want the media to be able to show the public what they're paying for. they will straighten out this problem in a day or so and we'll be happy to take you inside. you can see by the weather behind tom it's a beautiful afternoon here bill. but all about to change. >> things are changing quickly. it's a dynamic weather pattern. really the next two or three days it's going to be moving into the bay area weekend. live storm tracker 2. not that impressive but as we roll into tomorrow. i'm pointing out the showers north of our area. these showers are going to swing south as we head into

tomorrow. and you're going to have some sprinkles, showers and rain and snow. the next storm is tomorrow and there's also a chance for thunderstorms within this. so it's a different storm than the last one. the last one was kind of strong. you get the dynamics, you can see a thundershower. maybe saturday morning. other night lows tonight are in the 40s. rains should start in the north bay and work their way south in the early morning hours. as we look at the pa pacific, it's an active pacific. this is a good looking weather system. and it's going to load on us. we're going to see plenty of rain. it's a fast moving system. the north bay, storms basically going to drop an inch plus north of santa rosa. this is the computer model now, i want to show you tomorrow morning if you're getting ready to go to work.

here it is, right in that north bay, the north portion of the bay. petaluma and santa rosa, that's real rain. it all sweeps south. into the central bay and south bay as we go through the day. so you're early morning commute looks like it's going to be dry. but that friday get away is going to be a threat. i'm going to complete the model through the weekend so you can know what we are going to expect going into saturday and sunday. more rain. it's st. patrick's day. better get out your green gear if you haven't already. traditional has it that wearing green would make you invisible to leprocauns who would pinch everybody they saw. so if you don't wear green, you

might get pinched. with the regular season opener just around the corner. the san francisco giants world series trophy is wrapping up it's bay area tour. the trophy made it's last bay area stop today in pacifica. the trophy now leaves for oregon and nevada. the barry bonds trial is set to begin on monday. but tonight we'll te tell you what a judge decided the jury is not going to hear. take a look at these pictures here, it's a huge gap in highway 1 scaring a lot of people away. you can see why, it's also changing plans for lots of bay area travelers. where it is and what you need to know before you head out. a hate crime in a city known for its diversity. the unusual details and the larger trend police are warning

about. and -- >> when and if the radiation from japan gets to the area, how this device shielded in lead can help prevent any risks.

the hotel at yosemite opened again this morning after being restored. the first time its been remodeled since the 1940s. a poll conducted with uc berkeley asked voters how they would rate california as a place to live. one of the best, nice but not

outstanding. average, or poor, 39% or about 4 in 10 californians now consider the state one of the best places to live. that is down slightly though from 41% two years ago. the lowest point hit during the 1992 recession when just 33% had a high opinion of california. the highest thumbs up came back in 1985 when 78% said california was one of the best places to live. the poll also found that income levels affect how californians perceive the state. the lower their incomes the worse people feel about the state's economy. 38%over of all californians say they were worse off than a year ago. 26% of those within incomes of $100,000 or more say they are now worse off. and 49% report no real change at all in their financial situation. coming up at 6:00, what californians say about

immigration and the state's quality of life. personal insight into the crisis in japan. ktvu sat down today with a bay area engineer who worked inside that troubled nuclear power plant. >> and i heard about the tsunami and i went oh my god. tonight, pictures that show the damage at the plant and his insight opinion of the situation.

go! go! completing an atm deposit in record time... that's a step forward. go! go! with deposit friendly atms, you can make ultra fast, secure deposits

with no slips or envelopes. take a step forward and chase what matters. this east bay man knows

exactly what it's like to be inside that now cripple nuclear power plant in japan. he's worked there himself even reported safety problems in the plant. >> you will hear from him in just a moment. federal officials say radiation levels in the plant have some what stabilized now. but the head of the nuclear regulatory commission says it could be days, probably weeks before the reactor is contained. today crews worked to save off a potential melt down shooting water from helicopters, fire trucks and cannons at the reactors. as crews in japan struggle to save off the reactor, one man watches the effort as closely as anyone. he used to be a worker there. >> reporter: he told me he

never expected to see a tkpeu saáser -- to see a disaster rock the plant as bad as it has. he was clearly emotional about the plant where he once worked. >> i climbed down that ladder down to under ground. i'm blown out of the water. i never thought this would happen. i don't think a lot of my friends thought it was going to happen. i would love their thoughts if they are alive. >> reporter: the 59-year-old former engineer was part of a repair unit for general electric inspecting nuclear plants around the world until he was laid off in 1998. he said it was for reporting safety problems at fukoshima.

>> japanese say, that's the botl. botl in japanese means, old, not in good condition reactor. >> reporter: at his house in martinez, he showed us a logbook and notes he's kept for all these years. >> reporter: why keep those notes. >> i just kept them, because a lot of times you have lessons learned from each plant. >> reporter: but he says there's little crews can do. beyond dumping water on the reactors to cool them down. >> they have no choice. they are doing whatever they can. >> reporting live erik rassmussen. and the united states will work aggressively to help the japanese. >> across the pacific, they will find a hand of support

extended from the united states as they get back on their feet. >> reporter: u.s. search and rescue crews, disaster assistance teams and nuclear efforts are all works in japan. he says amidst the devastation, there are some signs of hope. >> in one small town that had been flattened by the tsunami. emergency workers rescued a 4 -month-old baby who had been swept out of her parents arms and stranded for days among the degree. >> reporter: the president said the child survival reminds us all of the common humanity we share. people who watch the auto industry say we can expect higher prices. many dealers expect a disruption in shipments of cars such as the toyota prius and yaris. they've already stopped giving discounts off the sticker prices. that situation could go on for

weeks if not months. jurors who are selected for the upcoming bonds trial will not hear the voice mails left by bonds to his long time mistress. this morning, a san francisco judge said the voice mails were not relevant. jury selection isset to begin on monday. testimony is expected to begin on tuesday. driving to big surf. don't bet on it. the highway is shut downright now because the road collapsed. robert handa down monterey county and you've talked to a lot of disappointed drives today. >> reporter: we're here along highway 1 where we've seen a lot of people drive by and get turned back. big sur is considered by many to be the most beautiful

coastline in the world. but now there's a very ugly and dangerous collapsed section of highway 1 cutting off all traffic on highway 1, to and from the town of big sur. >> this is one thing i definitely wanted to see was big sur. so yeah, to not be able to get there is disappointing. >> reporter: workers say there hasn't been much rain here and no mud slides. the collapsed section is solid rock that cracked off leaving a steep slope to the ocean. a team of experts is being brought in to determine what happened and what's can be done. >> with a catastrophic failure like this, some of the easy fixes right-hand fixes aren't going to happen. >> reporter: caltrans is aware that a look like this can keep

visitors away, caltrans asked us to remind people that business and restaurants are still open. >> right now the business is of course, very slow because there's no traffic. >> reporter: caltrans says a couple of months still may not be enough time because even know the section is still cracking and moving. live many monterey county, robert handa, ktvu2 news. health care cost hit home for some nurses in oakland. why these rns say children's hospital wants them to pay too much for health care for their own children. and what are americans looking for while they're on the road. we'll reveal the top gps searches next.

registered nurses picketed outside of children's hospital this afternoon, upset that the hospital wants them to pay higher premiums for their health care. >> it's a significant change for us. it will cost a nurse almost $4,000 a year to get the health plan where she could bring her own children to children's

hospital oakland. >> we pay an average of $64.50 for a nurse. so an average full time nurse makes $115,000 a year. that position makes a very competitive and desired hospital. >> reporter: the nurses staged a strike at children's last october. wal-mart is a business americans search for the most. searches for wal-mart were more than double the number of searches conducted for target which was in second place. starbucks came in as third. diet coke beat out pepsi. regular coke of course keeps it's number one spot. a quarter of all college students may have lost some of their hearing from listening to

ipods and other electronics. 7% had lost 25% or more decibels. inhalant abuse normally a problem for teens is rising among adults. this report says more than 1 million adults abused inhalants last year. aaron davis was 38 when she started inhaling or huffing computer duster. davis is clean now but says as one point she inhaled as many as 10 cans a day. >> i became just as physically addicting. i had withdraws, i was sick without it. that was the first thing, you think you need it all the time. >> reporter: huffing can cause irreversible damage to the lungs, kidneys and lungs as well as death. some sad news about a surfer who died at mavericks.

tonight we're learning more about what happened. we have an interview with him when he talks about his search for big waves. we move into our bay area weekend and into our friday. rain around the area right now. we'll take a look at that and we should be able to see some showers around yukaya. but it's just not a big deal. we'll be back, we'll have the forecast. a hate crime in a city known for its diversity. and when and if the radiation from japan gets to the bay area, how this device shielded in led can help predict any risk -- lead can help predict any risk.

we have sad news tonight

from mavericks where a surfer has died after he was pinned under water last night. mike mibach shows us how it happened and also a recent interview where the victim was talking about his search for big waves. >> reporter: a sad day in the surfing community, as many came together to honor a man they called the warrior. today they paddled out to mavericks and then they paddled back in. when they came back in, there were flowers, hugs and a wave of emotion. >> he told me he loved his family to the bone, and his family loved his back. that's what gave him the fire to do what he did. >> reporter: surfers awaiting and willing, including malaski who at least caught on five massive waves. >> he was untouchable out there

last night. just incredible surfing. whole other level. >> reporter: suddenly around 6:30 p.m., medics and police arrived on scene, moloski had gone down. he was pinned under two waves. >> he made the drop and the wave exploded behind him. it was low tide. so the waves, when they break they break really hard. >> reporter: this interview posted on you tube shows meloski searching the biggest wave in the world. >> my goal is to enjoy surfing while i'm still young. >> reporter: tonight, surfers wearing red ribbons were in the water remembering the surfer. >> you could just tell he embraced what he was doing with all his heart. >> an incredible brave and humble human being. a family man, an athlete on top

of his game. >> reporter: 35-year-old molaski leaves behind a wife and two children. reporting live here in san mateo county, mike mibach. pg & e could soon be put on the spot at 6:00 tonight, the question pg & e has to answer about his lapses in pipeline safety records. now we go to the newsroom where julie haener has a look at some of the other stories we're working on. >> reporter: at 6:00, an unprovoked attack. the keyword shouted during that hate crime. also dublin isn't the only city that bleeds green. the silican valley is attracting the irish and making their own celebration today. some people spent st.

patrick's day drinking and driving at infinon racetrack. under the watchful eye of the chp a group of volunteers pumped up their blood alcohol level then got behind the wheel on a marked drive patrol. >> today is definitely a day when people go out and drink and carry on. probably make poor decisions. >> we're going to show that you're fine motor skills, your ability to operate a vehicle can be impaired at an .06 or .08. so the best thing to do is having someone drive for you. >> reporter: as you can see a lot of cones started falling. >> i was just noticing that. a lot of cones were turned

over. >> you don't have to be a aaa member to get a ride tonight. we had a nice day today. but this fluid moist pattern will continue throughout the night. you see the showers up north obviously. those showers will work their way south as we head into your tomorrow. here's the system i'm tracking. tonight the clouds increase, sprinkles will show up, already they have in the yukaia area north. as we get into tomorrow we're looking for this system to drop right over top of it. it's be raining inch to an inch and a half. maybe some thunder, maybe some snow on bay area peaks saturday morning. a colder storm, a wind to your storm, it's going to feel like winter tomorrow. here's how it goes, storm details as we head into your friday. we travel around, it's your big friday get away. the heaviest rain from 10:00

a.m. to 2:00 p.m. wind gusts could come up. this is what you worry about. 10:00a.m. to 2:00 p.m. that's the heaviest. this side of the commute should be dry. the 2:00 p.m. side of the commute, two, four and five which a lot of people bail out early on friday looks like it's going to be wet. so prepare for that for friday. mountain travel won't be easy. friday at 8:00 a.m., here we go. we see showers showing up don't you. light showers here, the heaviest rain still north. here we are at noon. that's the real house of this storm. that is the bulk of this thing coming in. near one 1:00. by the 5:00 commute, it's going to be wet down there. santa rosa it's going to start drying out. instead of 60s as we've been seeing, upper 50s. the five day forecast continues in this march pattern. there you go, it looks very wet. there's your weekend always in

view. right now saturday is your best day. sunday looks real wet. saturday looks like showers too. so soccer games cancelled frank. >> it's my kid's first game too. >> i know. >> thanks, bill. the revealing dress worn by kate middleton has sold at auction. the u.n. security council made a ruling when it came to libya. what it decided late this afternoon.

six-

the u.n. security council has approved the no fly zone over libya. earlier today witnesses said rebels were able to shut down at least two bomber planes that attacked an airport in bangazi. but they before not able to keep loyals to gadhafi to get into the city surrounding amagia. >> reporter: because of the trauma of war, so many of them

are coming home as shells of their former selves. almost unrecognizable to friends and family. >> bay area lawmakers barbara lee were on capitol hill to raise awareness of what they call an epidemic. >> the v.a. stops tracking after three months. the active military doesn't track after discharge. the department of veterans affairs released a public service announcement this week promoted their help line. stay with us, ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00 is next. what happened outside this san francisco bar shocked

prosecutors and prompted a foreign consulate to get involved. wrap

why these faithful will willingly going to jail. good evening everyone i'm frank somerville. >> and i'm julie haeners. it's all people can talk about. will the radiation from the crippled nuclear plant in japan reach the bay area? john fowler joins us now, he's live in berkeley where he's been talking to scientists constantly measuring radiation levels. >> reporter: we're at the berkeley marina and we're monitoring radiation levels here with this