we're on stormwatch. coming up, the timing of the heaviest downpowrbs and when thunderstorm chances will be added to the forecast. we have ktvu's team coverage as some residents around the bay area prepare for possible flooding and crews take steps to try to minimize any storm-related damage. and we're monsterring the traffic and we'll talk -- monsterring the traffic and -- monsterring the traffic and we'll talk to the chp about what to prepare for as drivers develop chur out onto the wet

roads -- venture out on the wet. the first of the rain begins to arrive. people have begun to pick up sandbags, clear out gutters and trim trees ahead of the rain expected over the next few days. we have ktvu team coverage with reporters covering all over the bay area, from the south bay to the east bay and the slick road conditions in between. we start with mark tamayo tracking the rain. >> the first waves of rain, the first round of rain pushing across parts of the bay area. picking up, as you can see on live stormtracker2, we've been watching this. right now the steadiest activity is up in the north bay. you can see the greens and the yellows showing up there. there's the live doppler sweeps detectth the rainfall patterns. more of the steady rain can be heaviest for petaluma, out towards glen ellen as well, sonoma county. we're watching this area to indicate at least a reflection in the rainfall rates.

it could be about .25 an hour. that's an estimate with this radar return. moving the maps closer to san francisco and oakland. rain showers offshore and pushing across the bay out towards oakland and san leandro, nothing too major, just the green. we're looking offshore a little bit of a break in the action. but then more activity vipping out in the pacific. this would be the area of some more rain development and thunderstorm development, not just yet but later on today. out towards the east bay, orinda, a lot of scattered showers nearby. the south bay you can pick out the cloud cover out there and scotts valley. as we take a wider look out here, i was talking about the development in the pacific, we still have the strongest part of the storm to move in and keep in mind this is the only storm number one of two storms this week. this will be developing offshore basically out in this region later on today and into

tonight. coming up our forecast update in a few minutes. we'll track the time of the heaviest downpours and we have thunderstorms to talk about with that unstable weather pattern offshore. we'll have more on that coming up. let's go to janine de la vega in the south bay where the rain has caused some damage there. good afternoon. >> reporter: good afternoon. we're here on el monte road where you can see power lines are down here on the ground. that's because of this huge 30- foot pine tree fell down, it took the wires down with it. crews have been chopping up the tree trunks to repair the roadway. but repairs to the wires still need to be done. here's what it looked like earlier. the rain saturated the soil. the tree was already leaning, apparently it was enough to cause this pine tree to come trashing down at 8:30 a.m. it's blocking el monte road. it's affecting traffic in the area. fortunately, no one was injured. it just damaged the power lines and property owner's fence. crews responded to keep people away from the hazard.

crews have been cutting up the tree and they have been taking care of the lines. homeowner says he heard a loud cracking, pop sound. >> lights frick flickered -- lights flickered. they were off, on, off, on and then the lights stayed down. my wife said the tree went down. i said no way. but then we walked out and saw it. >> reporter: rain started to fall steadily on the peninsula before 7:00 a.m., creating puddles and wet roads. city officials have been concerned because of the major flooding that occurred in december of 2012. that's when the creek crested and waters year ran the levee. it caused damage to homes and streets in the surrounding neighborhoods. crews are on standby to handle any situation that arises during this wet period. numerous locations have been loaded up with pallets of sandbags. we found people loading up sandbags at this site on embarcadero in palo alto.

>> the concern is my garage area and if it -- if there's heavy rain and it settles there, then it comes in the house. >> reporter: there are 23 sandbag pickup locations throughout the santa clara county for a complete list, you can go to our website at ktvu.com and click on web links. the water district is asking residents to only take 20 per vehicle. now, i'm told that it will take hours to repair the power lanes that are down. i have put in a call to pg&e to try to get an estimate of when they expect to have the electricity back up and running here. i do see a -- i do see a pg&e truck coming down the road. we've not heard back from a spokesperson to learn exactly when they are gonna have the power back on. but as far as this road, it will remain closed. el monte will remain closed until the roadway is completely

clear. reporting live from los altos, janine de la vega, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you. and here's a live time look at traffic in the bay area right now and while there have not been major collisions reported, traffic is moving slower than normal because of the wet roads. always a good idea to do that. it's expected to be a rough afternoon commute with heavier rain moving in. alex savidge spoke with the chp about driving conditions and joins us live. good afternoon, alex. >> reporter: good afternoon to you. the rain isn't falling here in foster city at the moment but the roadways and the freeways are still wet all around the bay area. it was a soggy ride into work for many commuters. this is what things looked like driving down 101 across the peninsula today. the chp says they did see a lot more crashes this morning. a number of those single car spinouts that they attribute to the rain. the chp says the easiest way to avoid getting into one of those accidents in this wet weather is to simply slow down and don't follow that car in front of you, too closely.

>> maybe a rule of thumb for every ten miles an hour you are going, that's how many car lengths you should be. at 65 miles an hour, that's six cars. you may want to increase that on a wet roadway and keep your eyes on the road. >> reporter: the chp is asking all commuters to leave the house earlier so that you are not in a rush getting off to work or school. people we talked to on the peninsula say they do change the way they drive and slow down and hope that others do the same thing. that's often not the case, though. >> i slow down and i watch in all directions. my left, my right and i really slow down. >> reporter: do you think other people do the same thing? >> no. not a lot of people. i see them just rush by me.

>> i slow down a bit. yeah. be more cautious about the drivers. >> reporter: the chp says if the rain starts to pick up later on today into thursday and friday, you should expect some flooding along bay area freeways and hydroplaning is a distinct possibility. if you find yourself losing control because of the weather, officers say don't slam on the brakes. ease up on the gas, hold onto your steering wheel as tight as you can until you can regain control of your car. alex savidge, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you. and our stormwatch continues in the east bay where crews are taking steps to prevent major damage from the storm and possible high winds. brian flores is in oakland and joins us live. good afternoon, brian. >> reporter: good afternoon to you, tori. it started raining here in oakland about ten minutes ago after a brief break. as steve mentioned this morning and as mark mentioned, we're

expecting a few storms in the bay area which means rain but also the possibility of high wind gusts. this was the scene along lake merritt near ground where crews were victimming large branches from a large tree there along lake merritt. crews will be busy clearing out debris, storm debris inlets. what makes this storm different, the wind will play a different way. mark tamayo will be up in a few minutes. crews were busy cleaning out branches in oakland and trimming trees so they don't have to teal with a bigger problem like we saw near lake merritt when a large tree fell there. people in oakland are preparing for what's ahead. >> i know we definitely need it. i hate going out in it and i

hate driving it. we need it. >> it's been a long time coming. you never can tell the seasons anymore. just have to be ready. >> reporter: and just like before, the city of oakland is providing sandbags to residents in case of potential flooding. those sandbags can be picked up in oakland. we are live in oakland, brian flores, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, brian. and we would like to see your weather pictures. e-mail them to news tips@ktvu.com. or you can upload them them to our facebook page. you can go to ktvu.com to look for conditions for the area where you live and follow us on facebook and twitter for the latest conditions and weather alerts. san francisco firefighters regular cued a woman who fell -- rescued a woman who fell 25

feet down a cliff this morning. it happened around 9:00 near the cliffhouse. it took firefighters about an hour and a half to get her back up the cliff. they say she was hurt by the fall and was transported to sf general. her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. state lawmakers say it's a major problem with a simple solution. now any want to make sure that foreign language speakers are getting the same health coverage as english speakers. how they plan to do that and where the funding will come from. one of the men imfamously known for scaring tourists in san francisco has passed away. we'll hear from his family learn more about bushman.

the message for state lawmakers don't let healthcare get lost in translation. assembly speaker john perez and ed lee gathered in san francisco today in support of pair perez's bill to increase the number of medical interpreters available for immigrants. he says that california is leading the nation in getting people signed up for affordable healthcare. 829,000 are signed up. another 1 million are eligible. he says along with expanding the scope, we have to expand the quality of care for every

patient. >> we have some of the best doctors in the world working here in california but the work they do becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, if the patients they are trying to treat can't understand a simple question like where does it hurt? >> reporter: he says that most of the funding will come from the federal government so the bill will not have a big impact on california's budget. a rare case of measles has been reported in san mateo county. county health officials say the patient had recently been on an international trip. now they are working to find anyone who was in contact with the man in san mateo county. they are also strongly advising everybody, especially children, to get a measles vaccination to protect themselves from this highly infix owz viral viral -- infectious viral's disease. a b.a.r.t. rider was contracted with

measles. there was concern about contact with that rider who rode the el norte station to berkeley. the garden outside police headquarters is a lasting tribute to the two officers killed in the line of duty exactly one year ago. today's ceremony followed a public candlelight vigil last night at city hall in honor of detective elizabeth butler and butch baker. sergeant baker's son was among those attending last night's vigil. >> i miss my best friend. he's my hero. me, my mom and him always call ourselves the three amigos. i miss having that. >> a sexual assault suspect shot and killed the officers when they came to the door to question him. that suspect was killed a short time later in a shootout with santa cruz police. happening today, protesters will join others in the nation to mark two years since the

deadly shooting of trayvon martin. the 17-year-old was killed in florida by neighborhood watch captain, george zimmerman. the jury later acquitted zimmerman of all charges in the shooting death. protesters outraged about the shooting will gather in several u.s. cities including oakland at 4:00 p.m. today. he was part of the san francisco landscape for three decades. one of two men who spent their days scaring tourists along fishermen's wharf. one of those men has now passed away. claudine wong talked to his family and the man who may understand best why jacobs loved what he did. >> for 36 years, david johnson has heent his -- has spent his days hiding behind bushes and scaring people. he will tell you he's known as the one and only bushman. [laughter] >> i heard about him. >> he will also tell you there

was another. another man who called himself just bushman. that man was gregory jacobs. he set up shop down the road. for decades also made a living the same way. the two had it out a while back. >> after that first fight, we got along. >> reporter: when was the fight? >> this was -- that was about ten years ago. >> reporter: but when you work taught for decades, ten years passes quickly. johnson didn't know jacobs had passed away. he knew he had been sick but jacobs' family said that rarely stopped him. >> he would pass by with his hospital band and he would continue to scare people as if nothing was wrong with him. >> reporter: he said sunday night his heart gave out. jacobs was a father and brother. his family sent us these pictures, showing a side of jacobs most of us never knew. the man behind the bushman persona. but his family also says for jacob, this was home and the tourist part of his family.

>> maybe know one understands that better than david johnson. >> the people in the atmosphere, you know, it's a feeling you get here, just being here, just seeing other people laughing having a good time. >> reporter: you think that's what he felt, too. >> once you get into it -- it's a lovery feeling. >> reporter: -- lovely feeling. >> reporter: jacob's cousin said if he wasn't here scaring people, he was with the family and they said if he can't be here, they wish he was with him. the first round of rain remains on track. one approaches the bay area. a lot of activity as you can see a live stormtracker2, a lot of cloud cover outside with a mostly cloudy condition. the clouds have been incibsing. basically there's a solid deck of -- inceaseing. basically, there's a solid deck of clouds. here is a look at the doppler

sweeps. the focus has been up towards marin county, san rafael, novato, petaluma, at least right now, it's up towards parts of sonoma county. we're tracking this one cell, as you can see around santa rosa, just outside of santa rosa. as we track this moving to the north and east, it's basically over the next our or so, could be approaching calistoga. with all of that activity moving out to the north and east. more development offshore. just to the west of daily city and more activity crossing the bay bridge out towards san francisco and oakland. right now, the east bay covered out toward orinda, walnut creek, danville, san ramon and dublin. moving the maps to the south. a lot of cloud cover here with a few scattered rain showers. but a lot more rain in the forecast. san jose picking up quite a bit of rainfall. so far today. concord, though, nearly .25. san jose, .17. san francisco, .17. santa rosa we're adding to that .04 right now. as far as the weather pattern we've been advertising two

storms. first one still offshore. this will be moving into the region for tonight. second one the rain energy with this heads towards southern california, especially by friday but this will be a rain producer for us and also a significant wind producer. here is a closer inspection. the clouds and basically that moisture tap approaching the bay area. rainfall rates will be increasing this afternoon. could be picking up, in fact, it will be heavy tonight. we're talking about some thunderstorm chances as well. we are expecting downpours especially between about 3:00 and 7:00 later on today. for today, heavy rain for the afternoon and evening commute. gusty winds and thunderstorms likely. for your friday, mostly cloudy. tomorrow could be considered our break day. thursday should be the break day. on friday, this will be the major wind propose dueser. we could have winds gusting to 50 miles an hour and the chance of thunderstorms. in terms of totals, the coastal hills could have amounts topping 4 inches. the north bay on the other side of 3 inches. central portions of the bay,

1.75 and san jose, 1.25. they've had a nice start with the rainfall picking up earlier this morning. here's the estimated forecast model, i was talking about an increase in the coverage and intensity. the models show at 4:00 and once again we're bringing in the good chance for scattered thunderstorms out there as well. basically at 7:00 still pushing across the region and then tonight, you can see this one cell. this could be anywhere here in the bay area. but we could have some thunderstorms out there. as i mentioned. with that, heavy downpours very localized. some still some scattered showers in the forecast. the bulk of the activity will be in the morning hours. forecast highs this afternoon in the upper 50s to low to mid- 60s. rainfall will pick up. here is your five-day forecast with your weekend always in view, between now and the weekend, a few showers for your thursday. the main event, the two main events happening tonight and then another one moving in late thursday night and into friday morning. maybe a few lingering showers by saturday and then partly cloudy skies on sunday.

two storms to talk about and we'll have to keep an eye on the winds. that could increase the danger on the roadways and some power outages. >> we get a break in between them. >> yes, the break. it's perfect timing for us. >> stay with us for the latest on the wet weather. follow us on twitter and facebook for updates any time. a lucky family in the east bay had planned to spend thousands to remove a tree from their property. after the break, we'll fell you about the special offer that's -- tell you about the special offer that's turned the plan into a $1,000 profit. anncr: at jennie-o we heard of a place in iowa where every thursday people ride 10 miles for tacos. we thought we'd show up and surprise them with a better kind of taco made with jennie-o ground turkey cooked thoroughly to 165. i feed my kids turkey tacos over regular tacos any day.

i think they are light and they are just fresh tasting. yeah. when i eat well, i feel well. anncr: it's time for a better taco. the tacos tonight were pretty much perfect. make the switch. look for jennie-o ground turkey in a store near you.

uncle go one,two,one,two,one [uncle]thistwo,one.cotch,okay? [niece]okay! [uncle]okay? [niece]one,two three,four,five,six,seven,eight! [uncle laughing] okay,we go the other way,okay? [niece]one,two,three,four,five, six,seven! [uncle laughs]there's ten spaces,you want to try again? [uncle]yeah? ♪ [ male announcer ] spring is calling. get sta-green fertilizer now just $8 at lowe's. ♪

stocks are mixed. new home sales rose in january. the highest pace in more than five years. but retailer earnings reports failed to meet expectations. the dow is up 10. the nasdaq is down slightly and s&p down 1. the new bay bridge is turning out to be a windfall for some homeowners in walnut creek. they had planned to spend $3,000 to have this palm tree removed because it was getting too big. instead, a caltrans landscaper offered them $1,000 for the tree with the plan to transplant it to the new eastern span. caltrans will ship this tree to riverside where it will be checked for disease. well, this storm will only get stronger this afternoon and the evening commute is expected to be even worse than this morning. we will have crews fanned across the bay area to show you the conditions as they change.

and our weather team will have more than just how much rain we can expect and when we'll see a break. complete storm coverage tonight on the news at 5:00. thank you for making ktvu your choice for news. we are always here for you at ktvu.com. you can always follow us on twitter and facebook. have a great day. safeway presents real big deals of the week. or how to find big savings on the things you need.

just make a straight line to safeway. your club card gets you deals you can't find anywhere else. right now, breakfast is on. oscar mayer bacon is only $3.99. rise and shine with simply orange oj, just $2.98. and oikos greek yogurt is only a buck. real big deals this week and every week. only at safeway. ingredients for life.

>> coming next, these greyhounds have lost their jobs. what's in store for these retired racers? follow their remarkable journey. this is "animal rescue." [captioning made possible by telco productions, inc.]