that's significant. this one is going to wake you up. i wouldn't be surprised if we get a thunderstorm. that low moves on shore. a lot of cool with that low pressure center. it will be explosive. somewhere after midnight tonight, it's going to go off. when i come back, i'm going to time this model out for you. we're going to go through your day because it's not just that morning. so more rain in the forecast. when i come back, we'll talk about rain totals from today. we got over an inch, two inches in some places. we'll see that again tomorrow. all the details come together. i'll see you in a bit. >> thank you, bill. let's take a live look at the traffic conditions. this is a look at interstate 80 in berkeley. all the red lights are cars heading eastbound towards sacramento. the bright headlights you see coming toward us are heading east. also heading on to the bay bridge. you can see traffic in both directions about the same. you see a lot of people using that access road on the westbound direction for 80 as well. let's take you to a trip down to the east bay, taking a look

at 880 near the coliseum. lanes on the left southbound, northbound on the right. this picture is a lot better than what we just showed you. farther north up in the berkeley area, but still it looks like 880 southbound is slow going tonight. slow and wet on the roads. also slow in the air, because we are tracking delays out of san francisco international airport. we learned some travelers are seeing delays of nearly four hours. coming up at 5:15, we have a reporter tracking how it's going. a live report from sfo at 5:15 tonight. a homeless man in san francisco beaten to death. tonight, ktvu has obtained new video that police want you to see to help catch the killers. the man was beaten to death last week as he was sleeping in the doorway of a business in san francisco. employees are searching for three young men described as persons of interest. ktvu's david stevenson talked with homicide investigators about the case and david, some of them are saying this is one of the most brutal crimes they have seen. >> they are. police want the public to see this video in hopes of

generating some leads. even they say they are shocked by the amount of violence committed against this elderly, homeless, disabled man. the video is grainy, but homicide investigators say it shows a savage crime. >> 25 years in, this is a really awful attack. probably one of the worst i have ever seen. >> police say 67-year-old, ty lamb, a disabled homeless man who used a crutch to get around was beaten to death by three young men november 23. lamb was sleeping outside this building on the 100 block of sutter street and attacked twice, police say, between 11:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. >> this attack is extremely brutal in nature. the fact they left, came back, and resumed the attack. it speaks volumes about how bad it was. >> the corridor in the city's financial district is lined with surveillance cameras. this camera across the street at the gallery yay galleria. investigators say they believe

the suspects came into the area on muni or bart and participanted in a mob prior to the attack. they are described as two african american males. >> we want to see if anyone know the trio to hang out together or maybe saw them riding bart or muni. >> reporter: they are reviewing footage and say this attack was unprovoked. coming up at 6:00, what we learned about the victim from people who encountered him every day. frank. >> david stevenson in san francisco. we should mention, we put that surveillance tape on our website, ktvu.com. just scroll down to web links and you can see if you recognize one of those three men, david, thank you. new at 5:00, some call it a harmless right of passage, but liver more police are calling assassin a dangerous game that needs to stop. ktvu's john is live in livermore to explain the rules of the game here and tell us

some students have gotten hurt playing it, john. >> reporter: gasia, the goal is to knock your classmates out of the game or assassinate your classmates and these are the weapons of choice, a red marker and nerf-type gun. >> all schools are safe havens. in livermore is no different. >> we have made it abundantly clear that it's not a school activity. it's not condoned at school. they cannot do it at school. >> hundreds of seniors are playing assassin where they try to knock off their classmates. >> you shoot them with a nerf gun or cross off their neck with a sharpie. >> there are a ton of different ways you can do it. the best way is waiting at someone's house to come out. that's where it gets scary. >> two years ago, that exact kind of scenario frightened residents reporting armed people in the bushes. >> and they had gotten into

their car, took off. we had the description of their car, we pulled over and did a felony car stop, which means we point our real guns at them and order them out of the car and we found out it was the game of assassin. >> liver more police released this last year who crashed into a house trying to escape her would be assassin. >> talk to your kids. don't let them play in this game. we don't want anybody to get hurt. >> students started their game yesterday and students over at livermore high school are expected to start a game as well. back to you guys. >> john, 20 plus years ago when i went to the high school, right where you are, we played assassin. still, we were actively involved in the game. it's been going on for so long, have there been calls for it to go on before or is this the first time? >> this concern has been there for a long time. you mention the $1200. each team has to pay $10 to get involved. 120 teams, $1200 or so is the

pot. but yes, there have been calls for stopping. police are busting them or situations like that, running into houses. it can be a dangerous game. so there is definitely a push to calm this down. >> i think we got into a slight rear end car accident when we were playing when we were seniors. a long time ago. thank you, john. >> in capitol hill today, lawmakers held a hearing to discuss ways to cut off the flow of foreign fighters joining isis. >> the influx of foreign fighters surpasses anything we have seen in afghanistan. the scale of this mass migration is unprecedented. >> the united nations estimates some 15,000 foreigners are fighting with isis in iraq and syria. some figures show 100 of them are americans. during today's hearing, a state department official came under fire as he was questioned about why his agency has not canceled

the passports of u.s. citizens who have joined isis. >> obviously, an isis fighter would be an extreme circumstance if they are cutting off americans heads. >> we would only do it also in consultations with law enforcement authorities. and we have not yet had any request from law enforcement authorities to cancel passports of isis or foreign fighters. >> also today, there's word that lebanese security forces, a wife and son of a key isis fighter. the lebanese army is calling the wife a high value target. >> the centers for disease control today released a list of 35 hospitals in the country that are certified to accept ebola patients. two bay area hospitals are on that list. ali is live at kaiser medical center. what does it mean to be designated an ebola-ready hospital? >> reporter: first off, we're going to show you what it looks like. we are outside kaiser medical

center. on the 6th floor above us, there's an isolation unit where an ebola patient would stay. we got an inside look earlier this afternoon. >> our simulation patient. >> the next time there's a real patient diagnosed with ebola in the u.s., they could end up here at kaiser medical center in oakland. >> i think that if the patient resided in california and like you said, their family was here or a kaiser permanente member, we would be ready to take them. >> kaiser is one of 35 hospitals across the country certified by the cdc as ebola- ready. they went through a 28 page long checklist and spent eight hours watching a team of doctors, nurses, and staff care for their simulation patient as though it were the real thing. hospitals that want to accept patients must have things like negative pressure rooms. >> this means that the air is not recirculating outside of this room. >> and a decontamination

process that requires high-tech equipment. dr. steven says it's the best equipment he hopes he never needs. >> being ready for the improbable. but you're always thankful when you have that available. >> new numbers from the world health organization show that as many as 17,000 people have been stricken with the ebola virus, mostly in west africa. 6,000 have died. >> as long as we have healthcare providers in the united states and in california who are going to help in west africa, we need to be prepared. >> usf medical center is the other bay area hospital that is ebola certified. this is video they provided of their two isolation units on sutter. the treatment is expensive. it can cost several hundred thousand dollars to treat one patient. why would a hospital want to be ebola certified? kaiser has more than 3 1/2 million memberses and big hospitals have an obligation to be ready. >> when you take care of that many patients, you're part of the public health system.

>> and there are two other northern california hospitals on that list. uc davis medical center and kaiser in sacramento. there are no southern california hospitals on the list yet. we're told cdc representatives are visiting some of the facilities there this week. live in oakland, ktvu channel 2 news. >> ali, thank you. san francisco firefighters are asking for help to offset the work of christmas grinch. they say someone stole an entire toy donation barrel last friday during a demonstration against the police shooting in ferguson. it was right in front of a wall greens store just north of union square. toys from a second barrel at that location were also taken. >> i'm disappointed about the whole rioting thing period. we are trying to help kids here in san francisco, it's hurtful. it's very hurtful. >> the firefighters union, local 798 runs the toy drive and discovered the missing barrel during a pickup today. they are hoping that toys will either be returned or replaced by other donations.

>> happening now, hundreds of people, a little rain didn't keep them from the christmas tree lighting in san francisco's financial district. this is a live look at that tree on california street between montgomery and curnie. former 49er and his wife were honorary cochairs and hosts. the lights are expected to go on at any minute. we are waiting for that tree to be lit. >> toys for tots becomes toys for thieves. >> really surprised. we've been doing this for 26 years and that doesn't happen. >> how organizers hope to avoid a similar problem in the future. and a driver takes a wrong turn trying to cross the golden gate bridge. the challenge for engineers trying to remove the car. >> i personally never seen anything like this. this is pretty -- very uncommon. >> i told you about the storm's latest movement. coming up, i'll lay out the rain totals this system is bringing us. ♪

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this afternoon, students at uc berkeley gathered at wheeler hall to protest a recently approved series of tuition hikes. they chose to demonstrate today because it is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 mass arrest during the free speech movement on campus. we're trying to exercise our freedom of speech and our freedom to protest and our freedom actually is being very, very limited today. which is ironic. the students are frustrated. we are angry. >> back in 1964, 814 people were arrested during a sit in at the administration building to protest the university's ban on political advocacy. despite the approved tuition increase, democrats in the state senate are proposing a way to avoid tuition increases by charging a higher rate to out of state students. a nightmare day at sfo

today. people flying into or out of the airport were delayed as much as four hours because of the bad weather, which forced a lot of flight cancellations and ktvu's tam vacar is at sfo tonight. is it still bad now, tom? >> indeed. about 120 flights have been canceled. today delay was the name of the game. >> all day foul weather, rain, low clouds, and stormy winds forced planes to low landings and departures. delays were at least an hour and getting longer. up to four hours. >> ours is minimal. after an hour. as of now, there's a wait in the aircraft. my brother-in-law is going to florida and he has a 3 1/2 hour delay. >> we were to leave at 2:00 right now. we're delayed until 5:30. it's our plane getting into san francisco is the delay. >> aircraft fly multiple flight segments at any given day. if an aircraft is delayed because of weather, it compounds as the day

progresses. >> once passengers got past security, they weren't through with standing in line. many had to go to the customer service line to arrange for another flight. >> the delay on this flight to l.a., one richmond man left a lot of time to make extra sure he wouldn't miss his flight from l.a.x. >> because i'm going to be heading out to the islands. since i'm heading out, i want to say congratulations to my sister. she's getting married. that's the reason why we are heading out there. >> it's all very local. of the 23 canceled flights on this board, 18 of them were solely within the state of california. >> they may cancel and combine. cancel one flight, combine that load on the next flight. and reduce the amount of aircraft that are affected by the weather. that's really what we are seeing today. >> better safe than sorry, right? >> it is what it is. you know, you have no control over that. >> and you have no control over the fact you can expect more of this tomorrow. ktvu channel 2 news.

>> there was some flooding in san jose today as well. we saw a couple inches of water on streets. this is along coleman avenue. planes at san jose international airport were still taking off despite the heavy rain. but a couple flights there were canceled. the weather is also affecting the commute tonight. the eastbound a few moments ago. this is highway 24 in louisiana fayette. boy, it is jammed up in both directions. the head lights there on the left are the lanes that are heading toward walnut creek. slow going tonight. pretty much all over the bay area. >> let's bring in our chief meteorologist once again. take a look at how much wind we have so far and look ahead to tomorrow. >> there's more rain in the forecast. this morning's commute got hammered hard. you saw it here, rain fall accumulations really, i mean, it dumped this morning. these are some of the numbers. these numbers are changing even as i speak. but i got some numbers down quick for you. napa coming in at over an inch.

san francisco downtown, almost an inch and a half of rain. that is significant, because in these urban areas, like san jose, the runoff, that's where we saw the flooding. a lot of concrete. not a lot of drainage in a lot of these places and since we haven't had big rains in awhile. here's the system i'm tracking. you're seeing, the heaviest moisture band moved through. see it all in here? what packs the thunderstorms is this cool, cold, unstable air that is swinging into our direction. into our area after midnight tonight. it's going to go off. we're going to get very heavy rain overnight tonight into the early morning commute. current radar shows a little bit of activity up here by santa rosa. not a lot. right now we're getting a little break. the afternoon commute, we're seeing scattered light showers for the most part. not enough to really be a big problem as it was this morning. but, as i mentioned, after midnight it goes off. here we are, about 3:00 a.m., that's pretty significant.

now that's one of the moisture bands, those impulses swinging through. and you see these, that would indicate thunderstorms and that is not out of the question. i think thunderstorm is the kind of thing we could hear thunder tonight after midnight. and see lightning strikes. so 5:00 a.m., it's powerful as it slides through. this is your early morning commute tomorrow and yeah, looks like it's going to be messy. more widely scattered. today was a lot of aerial distribution. a lot of coverage today. north and south, 1 inch up here. 1 inch down there. what you'll see tomorrow is widely scattered showers and some breaks. those breaks will fuel and ignite potential thunderstorms in the afternoon. here we are at 5:00 a.m. the morning commute, especially the early morning commute. there's lunchtime tomorrow. these are con verdictivevective cells. your afternoon commute, not as bad. this is from now until thursday

morning. suggest maybe over 2 inches of rain in santa rosa and these urban areas getting over an inch of rain in san francisco is a lot. an inch of rain in the santa cruz mountains isn't very much. when the urban areas get hammered, we have a lot of problems. that's what we saw this morning. seeing a little more now. there's the five-day forecast. thunderstorms in the forecast tomorrow, heavy rain again. maybe a sprinkle or shower on thursday. then a chance to dry out. the long range models have more rain. this is great. this is exactly what we need. >> how much of a dent is this making? >> not at all. i mean, it's putting us up to average. we need three years of above average rain fall. it always helps. the drought is the drought, that's sticking around for awhile. >> got you. thanks. >> hardware store in the south bay is a testing run of sorts for a new kind of employee. >> what are you looking for today? >> how a robot is helping customers in five languages. >> now to julie henner in the newsroom with what we are working on for 6:00. >> a bay area vet who served

two tours in iraq is missing back here at home. >> he suffered from post- traumatic stress disorder and are it affected every aspect of his life after that. >> the effort tonight to try to find 28-year-old, joseph webber. >> plus, a lawsuit accuses zillow's big business of creating sexual harassment against women who work there. these stories and more coming up at 6:00.

the fight over immigration reform is heating up on capitol hill. house republicans grilled homeland security chief, j. johnson about president obama's executive action to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants. specifically, with regard to deferred action, that is an authority that presidents have used. >> there's a right way to do this and there's a wrong way. unfortunately, the president has taken the wrong way. >> committee members accused president obama of changing the law instead of acting within it. and the exchange got feisty when representative jason chavits played a video clip of president obama. >> this is from november 25. this is the president in nevada.

>> what you're not paying attention is that i just took an action to change the law. >> the president said he changed the law. >> act within an existing law. we act within our existing legal authority. listen, i have been a lawyer 30 years. somebody plays me an 8 word excerpt, i know how to be suspicious. >> okay. >> there is concern that the fight over immigration could interfere with the passage of a government spending bill next week. today, john boehner urged his colleagues to get the bill passed without the threat of a government shutdown. two federal investigations are continuing into the fatal ferguson, missouri, shooting of michael brown despite last week's grand jury decision. richmond police chief told us today he is still actively involved with the u.s. justice department investigation. he says it's on going. magnus is on a panel looking

into whether darren wilson should be subject to charges. the ferguson police department's policing tactics. there aren't any major problems on ferguson streets tonight. several hundred students walked out of high schools near ferguson and staged a hands up protest to show support. sam was declared san jose's new mayor today. the santa clara registrar certified the election today. the machine count was indeed accurate. ricardo beat dave by 2700 votes. the departure of the it manager and the closeness of the race. he is set to be sworn in as mayor january 6. shoppers at a hardware store in san jose may be surprised that two new seasonal workers. >> hello, i am the orchard store robot. >> you don't see that every

day. the hardware on royal avenue is the first in the country to employ robots for customer service. the company says the robots can speak up to five different languages and they can help answer customer questions and show them where they can find things in the store. and spokeswoman says the company is trying the robots out to see how customers respond to them. >> we are getting rain here. that means snow up in the sierra. we have a live report up from the summit. and the roads are open for now, but that's not expected to last. >> workers at a toys for tots say they are stunned. they say this kind of thing just doesn't happen. and the problem is, it couldn't have happened at a worse time. >> the rare type of accident on the golden gate bridge. how that mustang got stuck on the sidewalk. and how engineers finally got it out. >> we'll tell you this driver really gave our crew engineers some work to do today.

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complete bay area news coverage continues. this is koyie ktvu channel 2 news at 5:00. >> feet up snow in the sierra. that's a welcome sight for skiers and snow boarders. the snow was already coming down. in fact, ken pritchett found that out.

ken, you drove up to donner summit today. >> reporter: right now, we are getting a light mix of snow. this is how much snow we've had so far. just come down since then. so we have already seen some heavier snow come down. now right now, we'll show you a look at what donner summit looked like less than two hours ago. the roads were more covered. now the heaviest snowfall or snow fell right here just before dark. it's a sample of several feet of snow we received before this winter storm warning expires on friday. paul from the bay area decided to stop at a rest area to give his lab a chance to play in the snow. now they are on their way to incline village just ahead of the storm. >> no problem so far. you know, it's raining down at 6,000 feet. so it's only really snowing here at the top right now at

3:30, but tonight will get snowier. >> reporter: i talked with a drought expert with the department of water resources about these storms coming through. and they say this is the kind of set up they like, which is a one series of storms after another. they would prefer that in terms of the drought to one big storm. of course, we need a lot more of this and we need these series of storms to continue through december, january, and february. as for chain control, you can see traffic is moving by at a good pace right now. chain controls went up at 4:00. but they were only up for 30 minutes. no chain controls in effect at this point. but that is expected to change before this night is through. and the heavier snow comes through. all right, ken pritchett live in sierra tonight. a nice new blanket of snow. bill, how much more is on the way? >> if you noted, he's standing at the top of donner summit. there's not much snow there. it's been raining a lot.

this is a warm weather system. that's why we got so much rain. take a look at where it's coming from. it's coming from down here in the lower latitude. temperatures are pretty warm with this system. now it's going to happen is this area swings through. let me clear that out. these areas swing through, these impulses i have been talking about. that's a cooler air sector. snow levels are going to drop. let's take a look at that winter storm warning. you'll be up on 50 and 80 tonight for sure. not right now, but you will be. snow levels will drop down below 6,000 feet after midnight tonight. here is how the winter storm warning lays out. it's in effect until thursday at 4:00 a.m. they could easily get 1 to 3 feet of snow. but again, this is higher elevations. they have seen a foot and a half way at the top at squaw valley. but for the most part, it's been rain. so this is going to change over as we go into the next 24 hours and turn into a snow event. that winter snow event will

stay through thursday morning. i wouldn't be surprised if they got a solid 3 feet of snow. so more to come for us. more to come for them. when i come back, we'll look at that computer model and track in this next weather system. it will be wet for your morning commute. >> let's bring back those live cameras. this is a look at 80. the east shore freeway and the berkeley, emeryville area. here you see eastbound 80 is an awful lot slower than westbound. all those red taillights. people coming into parts of oakland and perhaps heading on to the bay bridge. let's go further south. still in the east bay looking at 880 near the coliseum. this picture looks just about the same as it did not too long ago. traffic definitely heavy both north and sort 880, but it is moving in both directions. all this rain is raising concern about mud slides in areas that were burned by wild fires earlier this year. that includes the site of the

massive king fire near pollock pines. that fire burned more than 150 square miles. reina tells us some areas are being shut down so the crews and nature can help the park recover. >> reporter: clearing away mud and fallen leaves. that is just the beginning of the road preparations for rain and snow in the county. a few miles east, white meadows road off ice house road is now closed to through traffic. residents in the area brace for mud slides. all along the road, we saw them using sandbags to prevent flooding and clogging. the early moisture already forced the national forest service to close down all dirt roads in the national forest saying it's now far too dangerous for drivers. >> the public should not be in the burned area. we did that because of concern for debris flows and sediment that may end up on the road. it's a very dangerous place for the public to be right now. >> that includes one of the

most popular campgrounds. >> the reservoir is an area that we have campgrounds in that area. and that is going to be closed until we can get the trees out of the campgrounds and get the roads safe for people to access them. >> officials say thankfully, not all recreational areas were affected by the king fire or the rain. most of the paveed campgrounds will remain open. >> a 700,000 acre forest, so maybe a tenth of this forest is involved with the fire and the other 90% is still available to the public and we expect the public to continue to use. >> once again, that was reina reporting. last week, the forest service used helicopters to drop a thick layer of straw to hopefully help protect hillsides that are at risk for mud slides. an accident on the golden gate bridge so unusual, crews tried to cover it up so passing drivers wouldn't see it. >> i personally never seen anything like this. >> what led up to this crash

and the tricky maneuver needed to get that car out of a very tight spot. >> temporarily closing the fourth tunnel. what caltrans is doing inside and how long it will be closed and the other bay area tunnel getting the same treatment. >> plus, 26 stories up and hanging by a cord. why 90 people brave the height and the rain to repel down a building in downtown san jose.

the rain didn't stop a fund raising event in the south bay. 90 people repelled 26 stories down the outside of the san jose hotel. they did it to raise money to prevent childhood drug and alcohol addiction. they are associated with an antiaddiction organization called shatter proof. those people repelling down the building included relatives of young adults who have died due to addiction as well as some local folks and hotel workers. >> what we're doing as part of this event is changing the conversation. addiction is a disease. it's not bad will power. it's not a character flaw. it's a chronic brain disease that no one asks to have. >> over the last year, shatter proof has hosted about a dozen events across the country and raised more than $1.5 million. board of directors approved the

plan that would lower fees. the plan comes after complaints that say they are struggling to compete with ride sharing companies like uber and lyft. and the subway and a policy that allows riders to board buses through any door. ashton carter emerged as a top candidate to become the defense secretary. served as defense -- deputy defense secretary as well as the pentagon's weapon buying chief. he would replace chuck hagel. white house officials say no final decision has been made. the defending champion, oracle team u.s.a. selected the british territory for the next race. bermuda went out over san diego. the other finalist vying to host the america's cup, the first time a u.s. team is chosen to defend its title outside the country. the race was held last year in

san francisco and you'll remember larry won a dramatic come from behind victory. >> toys stolen from kids who need them the most. tonight, toys for tots is wondering what kind of person takes toys from a donation bin. and how the group is now trying to make up for it just weeks before christmas. >> two tunnels are being temporarily closed, including -- it's not for repairs. the drill caltrans is practicing inside and when they will be closing down those tunnels. >> after the break, tracking more rain into your morning commute. it's going to be dicey tomorrow morning. i'll have the timing on the rain you can expect.

this is definitely something you don't see every day. take a look, that blue mustang wedged on the pedestrian sidewalk of the golden gate bridge this morning. crews tried to cover it up with a blue tarp and hoped it wouldn't distract drivers during the morning commute. but it was even more of a site, what you see here when it came time to remove that car. ktvu's carla lou was there. the crews hoisted that mustang away. explains what led up to that bizarre situation. >> workers called to a traffic break to remove a mustang that managed to crash on the west sidewalk of the golden gate bridge. with the help of a reach fork, it took just minutes to lift it up off the sidewalk and get it out of the way. how that car got there is something else. police say the driver went from

the parking lot on to the sidewalk heading southbound toward the bike lane on the bridge. officials say this driver was going so fast, he plowed right over this field barrier and then went and plowed through another steal gate before going on to the sidewalk. he drove about another 400 yards on the sidewalk. this picture shows where he finally got stuck wedged between the sidewalk railing and median. >> i personally never seen anything like this. this is pretty uncommon. you know, fortunately, it was early, early morning, there wasn't anybody on the bridge at this point. >> many southbound commuters saw the car covered with a blue tarp. commuters hoped to minimize distractions. a spokesperson says workers discussed numerous options to remove the car. they considered removing part of the railing before finally lifting it up off the sidewalk and carefully placing it on to a flat bed tow truck. >> this driver really gave our crew engineers some work to do

today. >> the driver, 22-year-old, daniel soto from san francisco was taken to a local hospital for minor injuries, then arrested for driving under the influence. from the golden gate bridge, ktvu channel 2 news. two bay area tunnels are scheduled to be closed this month for emergency responder drills. the first drill is set for this friday night at 10:00 p.m. inside the devil's slide twin tunnels. it is scheduled to reopen. they are at 4:00 a.m. on saturday morning. caltrans says traffic will be diverted while crews practice response to a two-car collision inside the tunnel. we're looking to see how they coordinate with each other and that's why we are holding the exercise. >> caltrans is also closing the fourth bore of the tunnel for the same type of drill, all westbound traffic will go through bore 3. that drill is set for friday, december 12, at 10:00 p.m. and set to reopen at 4:00 on saturday morning. heavy rain is threatening homes down in southern

california. downpours and muddy water are causing big problems in areas burned by a wild fire. the mud started flowing into a neighborhood just after the rain began pounding that area. about a dozen homes are evacuated. the same area, about 50 miles north of los angeles is where heels were charred during the spring fire. authorities say there's no vegetation left to hold the soil in place. city workers spent days moving rocks and clearing culverts. >> they stayed late last night to make sure that there was a clear channel through there. and the excavator was working on the hill above that drain in order to clear away the big boulders that had come down the hill during the last storm. >> the same neighborhood also experienced flooding and mud slides earlier this year from heavy rains. and the rain certainly is not helping the commute. another live look here at the conditions on the road. we are showing you a picture of the bay bridge toll plaza headed into the city. cars all stacked up coming from parts of oakland, berkeley,

emeryville. a long wait to get into san francisco tonight. jump back further into the east bay, show you a look at highway 24. this is just about the same as it was when we showed you half an hour ago. traffic is stacked up in both directions there on 24. whether you are coming into or trying to get out of the east bay there, traffic is low. >> boy, you know it's bad when traffic going into san francisco, the reverse commute is bad. all right, let's bring in our chief meteorologist to talk about the weather. and a lot of rain today and more on the way. >> more on the way. and the good news here is we can take a lot of rain in the bay area. we have good drainage systems. we have good rivers and the breaks we need so flooding is not a concern for the impressive rain totals. we have some small urban and small stream flooding storm drains backing up. you're not going to see the rivers coming up too bad. you're not going to see the major creeks coming up. they do come up, but they are not going to flood because we are getting these nice breaks.

shower activity in the napa valley. shower activity on 80 by fair field and vacaville. forecast models get aggressive in the next 36 hours. that's what they want to put on us. a broad brush, you get the idea over an inch of rain in san francisco. over an inch and a half in san rafael. 2-inches in santa rosa. again, getting 2 inches of rain in the santa cruz mountains, it's great. when you get an inch and a half in san jose, we get them in these urban areas, like we did today. get the problems we had today. tomorrow is going to happen again. late tonight, 3:00 a.m., right? a different kind of system. we're not going to see the widespread showers. some breaks and some heavy rain. then some breaks. but when it comes down as it will in santa rosa and petaluma at 3:00 a.m., you'll notice it will wake you up. you'll notice this cell when it moves on shore. about 4:00 a.m. when it wakes you up. and then somewhere around 9:00 a.m., heavier rain stays to the

north bay, but scattered showers throughout the bay. tomorrow morning's commute wet. tomorrow afternoon, still wet. maybe a thundershower and wet through the friday afternoon commute. more widely scattered. this morning's deal was massive because you have this big moisture plume and it was dumping rain from one end of our viewing area all the way to the other from monterey all the way north up into the area. 7:00 a.m. on thursday. some showers lingering and then kind of breaks up. watch what happens friday. another brush with something. so this has been good. really good weather system for us. we could get more rain that southern california story we showed you. had that moisture tap pulled in and phased in with this low. these rain fall totals will be double. we would be talking about more on the creeks and the rivers and things like that in terms of flooding concerns. didn't happen. would have been nice, actually, to have more rain. but you know, i'm getting greedy now. i'm happy we are getting some.

frank asked earlier, is this going to help the drought? they are two different things. it's a great winter so far, but the drought is really the drought and three years deep and it's going to take three massive years of rain fall to get rid of it. but, in any case, we're in great shape. >> you said it's californians, we might be living with this mind set of we're always in a drought. >> this is how it's going to be for ever. we have to conserve for ever based on how the climate is in this state. >> thank you, bill. >> about 100 gifts stolen from a toys for tots donation bin. how that group is now trying to make sure they still have enough presents to give out without a month before christmas. >> julie haener with more on the newsroom. >> a former zillow employee is suing saying she was fired for rejecting sexual advances by her bosses. the unacceptable behavior that is part of the culture at the popular real estate company. plus, the heavy rain exposes

home maintenance due to the drought. we go along with the home inspector who shows us what to watch out for as the storm system comes in. threes stories and more coming up new at 6:00.

happening now, rain didn't stop people from the tree lighting.

this is a look at the tree between montgomery and kerny. nfl hall of famer and safety, ronnie and his wife with honorary cochairs and hosts of the event. and a couple minutes ago, ktvu's sports reporter, joe fonzi spoke for a couple moments. those lights, by the way, are supposed to go on literally any moment. new at 5:00, a charitable group collecting toys for those in need this holiday season. it is scrambling tonight to regroup after thieves stole 100 toys straight out of the collection bin. that couldn't have happened at a worse time. those toys were supposed to be given to families in need. ktvu's smith spoke to the organization and found out how it is planning to make up for those losses. >> in this warehouse, soon be hard at work serving toys for children to unwrap on christmas day. a grinch stole toys. >> we were and still remain stunned.

really surprised. we've been doing this for 26 years here and that just doesn't happen. >> the santa cruz county toys for tots program say thieves took two bins worth, 100 gifts and two separate donation sites last week. the other in santa cruz. volunteers discovered the theft after the bins spotted pulled before were found empty at pick up time. they aren't sure how the thieves made off with the toys, but now they are making sure it doesn't happen again. >> our collection site partners are a lot more on the lookout. they are having to be more aggressive about asking for id and they will do that. but it's just not something they had to do before. >> the nonprofit gives thousands of toys to local pantry, shelters, and preschool who hands them directly to families in need. >> this is the only resource that they have to make the kids happy. >> while we were there, we met bernice who signed up to receive toys for the first time. through a translater, she told

us she is hoping to get gifts for her three children, including her four-year-old son, buddy, since her husband has had a hard time finding work. >> see the other children see getting toys and they will feel sad and wonder why. >> a retired couple donated $300 after they heard about what happened. this nonprofit is counting on the holiday spirit and generosity of others to make amends. if you'd like to help, we posted information on our website, ktvu.com. just go under the web link section and click under santa cruz county, toys for tots program. ktvu channel 2 news. >> now at 6:00, another round of heavy rain is heading our way. we're tracking the latest in a series of storms taking aim at the bay area tonight. the well-known real estate website, zillow, is at the center of a lawsuit. a former employee says is so bad that she felt terrorized. a bay area veteran missing for more than a week.

where he was last spottedded in a crowd and why his family isn't giving up. >> complete bay area news coverage. starts right now. this is ktvu channel 2 news at 6:00. >> flooded streets and standing water turned bay area roadways into danger zones. and trees come crashes down from all the heavy rain. >> this strong storm hit the bay area hard and now we are bracing for another round of heavy rain. good evening, everyone, i'm frank somerville. >> problems caused by today's heavy rain. first, let's go straight to chief meteorologist, bill martin. bill. >> rain showers out there right now, julie, but they are widely scattered. not as heavy as this morning, but after midnight, it's going to go off. let's take a look at the current rain. you see scattered showers. this is about all that is going on in the area.

vacaville has light showers, out towards davis. a little bit in napa. a light drizzle. the calm before the next wave. what am i talking about? i'm talking about this. e ound 3:00 a.m., you're going to start to hear some thunder. you see some lightning flashes and hear some heavy rain on your rooftops because it's going to light up pretty good as that low pressure center comes on shore. look at these reds indicating a thunderstorm moving on shore just south of half-moon bay. this is at 6:00 a.m. what happens to your morning commute? can't be good. looks like more showers right into the 9:00 a.m. hour. so, when i come back, we'll detail all this for you. there's more rain, 1 to 2 inches in the big areas. another 1 to 2 inches tomorrow. things could be real wet. we'll be back here with all the details. we'll see you then. >> that created problems all across the bay area today from downed trees to crashes, to very slow commutes. ktvu's noah walker is along i- 80. noel, it's slow going behind you. >> reporter: it is. we have a