rattling nerves along the way. lightning strikes took out trees and shattered windows. >> pounding rain drenched the bay area today and flooded busy streets. it forced many people to take cover under the umbrellas. >> we're on storm watch this morning. ktvu crews surveyed the damage. we begin with rosemary orozco tracking the storm right now. >> we're seeing a bit of a break, but there is more to come. thunder and lightning roared through the area. at this hour, you see parts of the bay area mainly cloudy. we are seeing light to moderate rain through this stretch. it is an evening that is met with wet roads for some of us. if i shift up and to the east, we have light rainfalling in

areas like fremont. we are far from seeing this storm move out of the area. for the next 24 hours, perhaps 36 hours, we will continue with the threat of thunderstorms and on and off showers. i'll look at how much i expect to go with this. we're talking about low snow into our hills. the rain isn't dampning spirits. it doesn't appear that the rain will delay or cancel tonight's opening day for the oakland a's, but baseball fans got drenched during tail gating. if the rain clears out, it will all be worth it for them. the house shook like an earthquake. debora. >> reporter: and power is still out here in the vicinity of spencer avenue.

the lightning actually hit that 80 foot red wood tree right next to a back deck. >> from what my macs say, macs -- neighbors say it was a huge explosion. >> reporter: the back windows in elizabeth small's dining room are shattered. the towering red wood she's enjoyed for 40 years is splintered. the lightning bolt hit just past noon as an electrical storm ripped through marin. it was powerful enough to break her neighbor's windows. the force even knocked books off their shelf. she says a lightning strike isn't anything she ever expected here in sausalito. >> i've never seen lightning closer than the sonoma hills. >> reporter: small is glad she stepped out for an appointment.

otherwise she would have been at her dining room table doing her taxes when the big windows blew. about 1,000pg and e customers were without power. that number is now down to 500 crews are still here working on it. in the east bay, the lightning snapped a tree and rattled nerves. neighbors are dealing with the damage tonight. >> reporter: there are large parts of the tree all throughout this community. there's a piece two houses up and i went and measured myself. it's more than 15 feet tall. part of the tree landed on this car. within the last half-hour, city personnel came out and red- tagged that house. up top there, that's the tree that once stood tall shading this entire community. this is all that's left of a tree that once stood tall in this berkeley neighborhood.

>> it was about 80 feet tall, branches about 30 feet wide. >> reporter: between 1:00 and 1:30 this afternoon. >> there was a huge lightning flash and all of the air outside of our windows seemed to go yellow and white for an instant and then there was a huge roll of thunder. >> it exploded like a bomb had fallen on it. >> this is scary. i was really frightened. i thought it could start a fire. >> reporter: thankfully it didn't. although it knocked out power in the area. to the surprise of some, no one was hurt in this rare occurrence. >> we've seen trees taken down by storms usually because they've been inundated by water. but a lightning strike that's hit a tree like this, i haven't seen before. >> reporter: they put tarps on

top of here to prevent further damage to many homes out here as they begin the cleanups and repairing their homes. the rain made for dangerous driving conditions around the bay area today. in the south bay, the highway patrol says it responded to accidents. today's rain was an inconvenience for some. others seemed to enjoy it. >> it's interesting to hear everybody just excited about the rain and not complain about it. it's a change in attitude because we've been living with the drought and it's terrific that it's raining. >> the chp says despite all the rain today, there have been no major problems in the south bay. viewers have been sending us

photos of the storm. kimberly sent us this picture of a car in flood waters. you can download our ktvu weather app. you can also get pinpoint forecasts in the city where you live. new at 6:00, two women locked in a bedroom while a man robbed them at gun point, but they tell us he also treated them with courseesy. it happened in their home. pleasant hill police department where police just released a sketch of the suspect. >> reporter: it was just released about an hour and a half ago after investigators spent the morning talking with the victim. during the crime, the robber kept trying to be compassionate and kind. >> it was very strange. >> reporter: a clean-cut guy knocking on this woman's door

told her a convincing story sunday night. >> he said i don't know the street address. i dropped her off from the bar last night. >> reporter: she said the guy came back 20 minutes later and forced a gun through the door to get in the house. when she started to panic, he said sorry. >> he kept telling me to calm down. he kept apologizing for what he was doing. >> reporter: she said he was going to tie up her and her 83 year old mother. >> very apologetic. he brought my mother kleenex. he wanted to bring her a chair. he kept apologizing to her and saying i know this is a terrible thing i'm doing to you. >> reporter: he stole jewelry, a debit card and the keys to

their passat. when he drove away, the woman was able to open the bedroom door and call police. >> the fact that he kept interacting with us scared me at times. >> if it's somebody you don't know, tell them to go away. >> reporter: the woman is warning others to not be so trusting because they can be targeted by an robber who may not be so nice next time around. [ indiscernible ] he's described as a white male in his mid-30s, about 5-11. he is average built and has a dark beard. if you have seen -- once again, that was christina reporting. an alert has gone out to parents after a student was groped walking to school in pleasant hill. prospect alternative high school. a 17 year old girl was on her

way to class when police say a man jumped out of the bushes, groped the student and took off. school administrators notified police and sent out an alert to 1100 parents in the school district. >> sometimes opportunistic people will go where the adults are not. >> i'll definitely keep dropping her off and picking her up every day. >> police are increasing patrols in that area. yee did not enter a plea today but is expected to plead not guilty next week. the suspended state senator didn't talk with reporters this morning as he left the federal court house this morning. >> it raises a question of

whether that's -- undue length of time is fair to leland yee. is that fair to the public? and it also raises the question of whether the government thought they even had a case. >> yee is free on a half million dollars bond. he is scheduled to return to court next tuesday. govern brown weighed in saying it's strange and tragic for all concerned. >> there's nothing that seems normal or understandable in this particular case. but i just think that this is a tragedy for the senate, for politics in general, for our democratic process. >> the governor repeated his call for yee and two other senators to resign. and he says he hopes the case moves forward quickly. today is a state holiday in

honor of caesar should visit. some students at uc berkeley -- organizers say they want california's prop 209 overturned. that outlawed the consideration of race or gender in college admissions. >> we're demanding that the u.s. supreme court side with our legal argument that they strike down proposition 209 in proposal two and begin to integrate this university. >> more than half of high school graduates in california are latina, black, and native american. a purse snatching in a bay area restaurant. now there's a new way to pay and protect your money.

the technology making it happen. pounding rain and flooding on city streets. we take note of the drought conditions in the midst of this series of storms. ♪

♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing really good around ♪ ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit tired ♪ ♪ of living off the taste of the air ♪ ♪ turn around, barry

♪ finally, i have a manly chocolatey snack ♪ ♪ and fiber so my wife won't give me any more flack ♪ ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ ♪ new at 6:00, thieves make off with a woman's purse at a bay area restaurant. had this been in effect, it could have protected the woman. in this case, target simply doesn't check identification when a person pays with a debit or credit card. in this case, that one simple step might have stopped the thieves. we have a warning for anyone that used a debit or credit card. >> reporter: social worker got

pick pocketed at a san bruino restaurant. >> they looked at the security cameras. >> reporter: the thieves went across the street and ran up $1,500 on her credit cards. >> what shocks me. >> reporter: few retailers ask for i.d. or even ask to see the credit card because swipe machines are usually far away from the cashier's eyes. including california. >> i think they should change the security and safety procedures. >> reporter: so the question arises, are credit cards simply obsolete even if we put smart chips in them? is the better way to make payments through your smart phone? >> we are in a different era.

we can't afford to go to the store, use your card. >> reporter: smart phones are way better than credit cards. >> we've made the technology so instead of the bad guys having to spend $10 to attack your phone, they might have to spend thousands of dollars to attack your phone. >> reporter: instead of always on the defensive. >> we can trace the bad guys. >> reporter: in a written statement, target says it fully cooperates with law enforcement on these investigations. a federal jury in oakland has indicted a real estate investor for fraud. they indictment accused him of wire fraud and telling others to impersonate lenders.

a message today about climate change from jerry brown. he says that we need to change our ways or risk causing irreversible damage to the planet. one big problem? all the cars on the road. the governor says last year in california people drove 332 billion miles. >> setting in motion the presence of green house gases that will be around for hundreds of years. and worse than that, it's not a slow walk to destruction. >> governor brown says reversing green house gases will require substantial changes to agriculture, land and fuel use practices here in california and globally. as our storm watch coverage continues, people are asking if they still have to ration their

water. starting tomorrow, residents in fremont and new ark city can only water once a week. many residents say that's unfair. >> it's been raining for the past week, so maybe it shouldn't -- you know -- it doesn't make sense. >> but cities get almost half of their water from local rainfall and data out today says reservoirs are averaging about 2/3 of normal. we are on storm watch tonight. we had thunder, lightning and pounding rain earlier, but now it appears things are calming down. rosemary orozco is in the weather center. >> we will continue to have on and off periods of rain and even thunderstorms remain in the next 24 hours. the storm rolled a ashore right

around noon time. right been 1:00 o'clock, take a look at the lightning as it crosses over in areas over the north bay and in the east bay where we had stories earlier about lightning and even striking trees. you can see for yourself that's where it was focused. right through the parts of the north bay and east bay for the afternoon. many areas reported lightning as well as thunder. thankfully for this evening's drive it has tapered off quite a bit. santa cruise reporting light to moderate rain there. south bay, we have light rainfalling into fremont. we have rainfalling in areas around liver more. we have rainfalling toward

antioch. santa rosa reporting a few light showers as well as napa. and to the snow. levels will be dropping into the evening hours. dropping to about 3,000 feet by tomorrow. we could actually see a little bit of snow on mount saint helena. this will bring the possibility of thunderstorms tomorrow. the center of the storm has the most energy and the most unstable weather. for today, the steady rain moved through. lightning and aa little bit of hail. we're not done just yet. thunderstorms through tomorrow and lower snow levels. tomorrow morning, temperatures will be on the cool side. this is a cold storm. for the afternoon, upper 50s to near 60s. it's going to be a cool day. possibility of thunderstorms and then when we get the sunny

breaks, that adds to the instability. we're dry for the weekend. we are now less than 6 hours from that midnight deadline to enroll for health insurance. the state's website covered california experienced very high traffic today and some people reported they couldn't complete their applications. a spokes person says if you have technical problems, you should start the application process to avoid a penalty. if you do miss the deadline, the fine this year is $95 per adult or 1 percent of your household income. as an example, a single person with an annual income of $40,000 would have to pay 2 night dollars. and those fees will go up. or 2 and a half percent of your

household income, whichever is greater. ktvu has a special section to help you meet the deadline. look under hot topics for more information on how to sign up. the oakland a's say they will start their season opener come rain or come shine. but will they finish? we'll have a live report. week nights on the 10:00 o'clock news on ktvu channel 2. presented by orchard supply hardware.

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a whole lot of opening night excitement for the a's, but there's questionable weather hanging around out there. >> no sun and plenty of gray is the weather condition, but they are going to get it underway. what's up with the latest on the weather and the preparation for the a's? >> reporter: it's going to start, but it's going to be obviously delayed. 7:05 is the time it's supposed to be scheduled. as you can see, there is nothing near ready for the ball game. this is their 47th season opener. management wants the game to be played for financial reasons. and the players haven't played since friday so they want to get back on the field as well. this field is saturated.

this field is below sea level and the 48 year old coliseum's had sewage issues in the past and this weekend in the club house. >> our guys have fun with it. we do have issues here and they deal with it and they look at this place as our place and -- so we just deal with those things. whether it was last year in the dug out when we head to stand outside, it doesn't affect us. >> reporter: it is a sell-out. fans coming in very slowly. 7:05 start is not going to happen. they want to make sure they're not the first game in major league history to lose 10 straight season openers. >> one of the classiest winningest coaches in the history of college basketball

michael montgomery officially announcing he is going to retire from coaching. 6 years at cal. 45 total years of coaching and his winning percentage, almost 700. >> tonight at 10:00, the storm watch continues. we're surveying the problems and looking ahead to the next round of wet weather. we'll see you at 10:00. good night. ♪

♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit hungry ♪ ♪ and there's nothing really good around ♪ ♪ turn around ♪ every now and then i get a little bit tired ♪ ♪ of living off the taste of the air ♪ ♪ turn around, barry ♪ finally, i have a manly chocolatey snack ♪ ♪ and fiber so my wife won't give me any more flack ♪ ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪

♪ [door opens] oh, good. you're up. oh, it is such a beautiful day. let's go have brunch somewhere outside ? ew, gross! what happened to you? i'm hot. - now i'm cold. - oh, no. [crying] and we have that concert tonight. i know, but that's the furthest thing from my mind, okay? we had amazing seats for lady gaga, and he gets sick. i'd been looking forward to that concert for months. it's the one gay cliché i allow myself. [birds chirping]