itchen. come in today and save up to 20% on a kitchen from ikea. problems all around the bay area and there is more rain to come. good afternoon. we begin with the stormy weather in the bay area. the rain has been steadily falling all morning. it's creating numerous problems for travelers and residents in flood-prone areas. we have team storm coverage. mark tamayo is in the weather center. we're tracking problems in the

north bay. we begin in the east bay. there is flooding damage there. >> reporter: obviously a great day to carry an umbrella. we had several spinouts on bay area roads, fender benders and flooding in unexpected places. water dripped through the ceiling of this candy store this morning. >> as you can see, it's flooded all over. >> the roof appeared in danger of collapsing. the rain soaking through computers, new hardwood floors and nearly $50,000 of high end chocolate. >> it's tough. this economy is very tough. we'll survive. we hope so. >> just before 10:30 in oakland, a tree fell at the fruitvale off-ramp from 580 landing on top of a car. the driver was not hurt. during the commute in berkeley, large puddles caused vehicles to vehicles to hydroplane.

>> was it scary? >> oh, yeah. >> it resulted in a four-car crash on westbound 80 near gillman. >> i hit a puddle. i spun around like i was on ice skates. i hit that mini-van and the wall and tore my car up. very scary, very dangerous. >> some people said they didn't mind the rain. >> liquid sunshine. we need it. >> still the blustery conditions snarled traffic and had caltrans crews unclogging drains and trying to clear roads. for this chocolate tier, the rain was too much. >> we were not expecting this. it's life. >> reporter: the rain is expected to taper off more today and have a resurgence tomorrow night. that will mainly be focused in the north bay. back to you. a mudslide shut down part of highway 17 this morning near

scott's valley north of santa cruz. caltrans has cleared the highway and reopened it. also in the santa cruz mountains, the highway patrol says a 21-year-old man died after his car slid off a road near felton at 1:30 a.m. the rainy weather has been rough on drivers all over the bay area. this is a live look. you can barely see some of the cars on san mateo-hayward bridge. chp is warning drivers to slow down on the wet pavement. scores of accidents are reported all around the bay area. we continue our storm watch coverage in the north bay which can be especially hard hit with winter storms. we're live with the damage in a part of the bay area including a big problem for sonoma county homeowner. >> reporter: we're in san rafael right now. san rafael has gotten almost four inches of rain in the past

24 hours. you can see a light drizzle right now in downtown san rafael. north in sonoma county, perm still assessing the destruction after a tall tree fell on a house. it was a muddy mess. the winds were whipping so hard a tree crushed a home. no one was inside at the time. no one of hurt. the crash shook neighbors. >> we were sitting right here in the front room when it came down next to us. i thought the upstairs collapsed. what the heck? my fiancee said, i think a tree came down. i stepped out. whoa. >> reporter: near the city of sonoma there was a sigalert just before 5:00 a.m. the chp shut down a portion on highway 12 after several cars got stuck in a flooded road. overnight driving was tricky for people crossing the richmond bridge. wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour caused a high wind

advisory all night long there. on the san rafael side, construction workers kept busy. >> such pumps go out. you have waitedder in the house or the basement. >> reporter: so looks pretty good right now in downtown san rafael. just a light drizzle. nearby in the small town of kentfield, they got six inches of rain in the last 24 hours. they did not have any problems or any major flooding. back to you. >> thank you. the rain and wind are causing delays of up to 3 1/2 hours at sfo. sfo has implemented its traffic management plan. instead of landing planes simultaneously on two parallel runways, they're landing one at a time. call the airline to check on details of any particular flight.

that rain band still continues across the bay area. we started tracking it this morning. it's not moving too much. still some light to moderate downpours. look at the rainfall totals so far. look at wood acre, over seven inches of rain. santa cruz county, scott creek over eight inches of rain since all the storminess started. san jose at the airport barely reporting any measurable rainfall. right now on live storm tracker 2, you can pick out the live doppler sweep. south bay not picking up as much with the exception out toward the santa cruz mountains. still san jose reporting light rain off and on all morning. you can see the darker shades of green around san francisco and oakland. that has basically been the constant since 5:00 a.m.

creating the rough commute out there. up in the north bay, up toward marin county, sonoma, napa, you will notice this back edge beginning to break up a bit. this started to break up about two to three hours ago. so far not too much change. throughout the afternoon hours, this could shift to the south. the rainfall rates could taper off a bit later this afternoon. we're still tracking some more rain pushing into parts of the bay area. we have more storms to track. that's coming up. >> thank you, mark. if you are hoping for snow in the sierra, mother nature is delivering. this is what it looked like in soda springs near i-80 this morning. that area had ten inches of new snow by 7:00 a.m. ski resorts were reporting up to two feet. it caused driving problems. there is more snow on the way.

up to six feet of new snow from a weekend storm. chains are required on i-80 for people without four wheel drive vehicles and snow tires. an oakland man who point add gun at please is in custody after an incident that left him wounded by police gunfire. police say they encountered the 23-year-old man during a suspect search around 9:00 last night in east oakland. when the man saw police, he took off running with a shotgun. police say the man threatenedded them with the shotgun. when -- one officer opened fire and shot the suspect in the shoulder. we're learning that the superintendent of san francisco public schools is stepping down. carlos garcia has just confirmed in the past few minutes that he will retire at the end of this school year. he has led the district since 2007. we have a crew covering this developing story.

we'll have more at 5:00 and 6:00. we are just getting word that the pension fund for tens of thousands of california state workers has voted to lower its estimated annual return. the newest mitt is $7.5%, down a quarter point from the previous estimate. the move by the board will require the state to kick in more than $300 million to that pension fund. a a new 49ers stadium in santa clara is a big step closer to reality. the city council and the stadium authority approved a stadium lease agreement last night. it says the team will pay $30 million to the stadium authority. the city council gave its ok to a $1.7 billion financing deal to build the stadium and surrounding property. , news of a close call for a top u.s. official in afghanistan. >> mark is back with more on what you can expect from the weather for the rest of the

afternoon and the week. >> i'm feeling great, looking forward to playing in the tournament. >> just to bay area teams are playing in the ncaa tournament.

we americans and brits speak the same language, most of the time. so let me just say, david, we are chucked to bits that you are here. >> president barack obama gave british prime minister david cameron a formal welcoming ceremony today at the white house by speaking some british english. it's not an official state visit. that's because the queen is considered the british head of state. president barack obama and the prime minister are holding talks today. president barack obama said he does not anticipate any sudden or additional changes to the timetable for drawing down u.s. troops in afghanistan. those comments came during a join news conference with british prime minister david cameron in the rose garden this morning. mr. cameron said he believes nato can achieve its goal of keeping afghanistan from again becoming a haven for terrorists. the u.s. and britain have the

largest military presence in afghanistan. the pentagon says an afghan drove a stolen truck on to a british airfield today where defense secretary leon panetta was landing for an unannounced visit. defense secretary leon panetta landed safely and proceeded to the u.s. base camp leather neck next door for a town hall meeting with troops. british commanders say the afghan drove the truck into a ditch near a ramp where the plane was supposed to park and that the driver emerged in flames. troops put out the flames and searched the truck but did not find any explosives. they're trying to determine if the incident is related to the visit. gop presidential candidate rick santorum moved his campaign to pore owe rico today after a double win in the south. he is meeting with voters in the u.s. territory ahead of the primy there saturday. rick santorum still trails behind mitt romney in delegates, but he says the surprise victories in mississippi and alabama yesterday show that he has what it takes to take on president

barack obama this fall. >> we nominate moderates in this party, we lose. we nominated people who stand for what our principles are that made this country great, we win. >> mitt romney came up third in both states. he did pick up wins in hawaii and american samoa. newt gingrich campaigned hard in the south but failed to score a win. rick santorum sorning him to give up. a series of strong earthquakes rattled japan overnight prompting a small tsunami. the first one a 6.8 magnitude quake hit at 2:00 a.m. our time. that was followed by a 6.1 quake about 60 miles off the coast of tokyo. a swell of just few inches was seen along the coast. there are no reports of any damage. a college dorm webcam spy case is now in the hands of a

new jersey jury. the judge gave jurors instructions earlier today in the trial of former rutgers student dharun ravi. he is accused of viewing his roommate's intimate encounter with another man on a webcam and sharing that information on texts and tweets. his roommate jumped to his death from the george washington bridge. concord's police chief is releasing last year's crime statistics and some are on the rise. of the seven crimes he discussed, four increased from 2010 to 2011. they're murder, robbery, assault, and arson. he said the department is creating etc. own facebook page to help keep the public informed. in napa to men are facing charges accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of bronze railings. video showed two men loosening the rail screws in the middle

of the night. the men later removed the railings and loaded them in a truck. police staked out the area and arrested the men when the truck returned. police will visit the scrap yard that made the buy. >> they have to know they're buying stolen property or have a good idea but they ignore that. >> transients were arrested for grant theft. an east bay fire chief warns fire stations could be closed unless voters pass a new tax in november. the chief of the central contra costa fire district says without a $90 annual property tax six of the district's 28 fire stations would have to be shut down. the chief told the board of supervisors there are no other options without additional money.

a state park in the santa cruz mountains has been saved from closure. castle rock state park is getting a $250,000 donation from a conservation group. the money is enough to keep the park open for another year. it was one of 70 parks slated to close by july 1 to save the state $22 million. a 28-year-old hiker is recovering after getting stranded on mount tam and next cold and windy conditions. the man was backpacking from san francisco to point reyes national sea shore when he became disoriented. he was able to call for help yesterday. he was found within a few hours. a springtime heat wave is covering the eastern 2/3 of the united states. people in states like missouri are seeing early blooms and heading to nurseries to buy plants and flowers. across the u.s. 100 locations

had record temperatures for yesterday's date. the opposite here in the bay area, not so much for the chill, but at least the moderate rainfall pushing through the area. this is the view in san jose, most lieu cloudy. san jose has only picked up a a few hundredths of an inch of rain. so they still have to play catchup. san francisco, oakland and san rafael, darker green there, more moderate downpours. even in the south bay san jose is roaring light rain at last check. closer to santa cruz, santa cruz mountains picking up significant rainfall over five inches up toward the bend lomand area over the past 24 hours. you will see more action up toward marin county, around

sonoma and napa. you will & notice that back edge beginning to move into parts of the northern portions of sonoma county. decreasing rainfall rates up in this area, that will gradually be the trend for the northern half of the bay area the mid- afternoon. as far as current temperatures, we have most spots in the 50s to 60 degrees. san francisco at 56, san jose upper 50s, livermore around 59 degrees. this is amazing. you can see the storm. is this basically like a garden hose being pointed at the bay area. this is not moving. this has been the case all morning. it's shifting a bit to the south right now. it's moving very slowly. we'll hold on to the rain in our forecast for today and still some gusty southerly winds around 20-25 miles an hour. three more storms lining up in the pacific. thursday rain develops in the north bay, gradually spreading

to the south. friday some rainfall developing again. saturday some cold rain and thunderstorms. tomorrow morning chance of some rain, high nest north bay, then rain chances increase by the evening hours. thursday evening. another system approaches friday. that could pack another punch. much cooler for the weekend. this afternoon periods of rain, temperatures in the upper 50s to lower 60s. still rain clouds thursday, chance of a shower, friday we increase the rainfall rates especially by friday evening. for the weekend it could be cold and stormy around here with the possibility of some thunderstorms. low snow levels and the chance of a shower into sunday. at this point sunday appears to be the better choice for outdoor plans. >> thank you. march madness has hit the

bay area. one hometown team is headed out for the big dance. the stment mary's college men's basketball team caught a flight to omaha this morning at oakland airport. they'll play their first game in the ncaa basketball tournament in omaha. they're seeded 7th in the midwest bracket. the coach and the team's star player say they're ready. >> you are going to play a tough game and produce, so doesn't matter. >> we're a tough team. i think we have really close -- we enjoy each other's company. i think that translates to the court. >> gails will face number ten seed purdue friday in omaha. uc berkeley also in the ncaa tournament, they play south florida tonight in dayton, ohio. coming up, why some local college students are communicating with president barack obama. >> abear animal shelter is asking for your help because they have too many of these cute little guys. [ male announcer ] for some reason

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at this hour student at santa clara university will join with other schools across the country to view a motivational live facebook event at noon. they'll hear encouragement from president barack obama and others to stay with it when it comes to pursuing an engineering degree. it's part of an effort by president barack obama's counsel oil jobs and competitiveness to address the country's shortage of engineers. the oakland animal shelter is in desperate need of good homes for more than two dozen rabbits. the shelter is over its limit after 20 bun ease were dropped off since the first of the month. there are five pure white bunnies. tonight at 5:00, we are still on storm watch. our crews are across the bay area gathering new pictures and new information about this fallout from this big downpour. we're up in the mountains at 5:00, the sign that this storm

might be delivering the blow we anticipated to the sierra. thank you for trusting "ktvu channel 2 news at noon." we'll see you the next time news breaks. we're always here for you on ktvu.com and mobile ktvu.com. thank you for watching. have a great day.