now at noon, a strong storm moving into northern california right now. coming up, the timing of the heaviest rain and the strong wind as the storm pushes into the bay area. >> reporter: ahead of the big storm, that means many commuters are getting ready for tonight and tomorrow morning. we'll tell you what b.a.r.t. is telling drivers. and what pg&e says it's already doing to get ready for the big storm. it's being forecast as one

of the most powerful storms our region has seen in quite sometime. we're on stormwatch as we get ready for the bay area to get pounded by heavy rains and strong wind. i'm tori campbell. we have team coverage on the preparations already underway. but we begin with mark. >> by this time tomorrow, we'll have some intense downpours, very intense downpours pushing in across the north bay, approaching the central portion of the bay. that's for tomorrow. right now the storm is inching closer to the bay area. there's that very well-defined cold front, the heavy rain up towards humboldt county, up towards mendocino and eureka. a few scattered showers approaching the north bay. later on today especially at 5:00 or 6:00, the rain chances go up in the north bay but the real significant rain moves in overnight. a lot of advisories. a surf advisory kicks in. waves could top 20 feet. wind advisories will be a key component. could gust to 60 miles an hour. you could get on power outages and a flash flood watch with

intense rainbands coming down, say, two, three hours. rainfall rates picking up, especially for the coastal hills. that flash flood watch could be turning into a warning for tomorrow. here is the forecast model. as you can see, 7:00 tonight, scattered rain showers. nothing too extreme approaching parts of the north bay but look what happens tomorrow. those colors begin to brighten up. really pushing into the bay area. this is the main rainband moving into part of the region. we'll take a closer look at the timing of the system as we head into the thursday portion of the forecast. we have a blizzard warning to talk about. more on that in ten minutes. in preparation for the storm, several transportation agencies getting ready for what a very wet morning and afternoon commute. brian flores is at live at the bay bridge toll plaza with what officials are telling commuters. what they want everyone know.

>> reporter: they are saying if you can work from home tomorrow. if you have to go to work, slow down. if you take a look behind me at the bay bridge toll plaza, typical traffic. the roads are dry. it's a cloudy day, it will change hours from now. for more on what we can expect tomorrow, at least from the california highway patrol stand point i'm here with officer shawn. what are reexpecting tomorrow? >> a lot of rain tomorrow. we're asking a lot of drivers to slow down. the number one cause of collisions is speed. so if we can get everybody to reduce their feed due to the conditions, we'll all be better off. we want to remind people if your windshield wipers are on, you need to have your headlights on. >> reporter: in terms of -- for example, if people get into an accident, we hope that doesn't happen, if they do get into an accident, there's important advice. >> a very common call for us is a solo spinout. sometimes they spinout in the

roadway or fly into the center divide. if you find yourself and you are blocking a lane of traffic, stay in vehicle, keep your seat belt on. make your way to the shoulder. if you can't do that, call 911. do not get out of that vehicle under any circumstances. >> reporter: thanks for joining us. it will be very busy tomorrow into tonight as well. but preparations, public transportation agencies are getting ready. b.a.r.t. officials say crews have been busy all week clearing any drains and sealing leaks. for now, official says they are running the full amount of trains tomorrow which is 62 just like they do on a norm am thursday morning but they arrive commuters to arrive because of delays. >> there were areas that had water intrusion, we made sure whatever has been leaking has been patched up. and in addition to that, we've

taken a look at veg takes along the tracks and made sure with the high winds that we don't have anything that could potentially blow into the tracks. >> reporter: as for the ferries, the golden gate ferry says the plan is to run on their normal schedule. if the weather gets bad, they bring on heavier boats to carry passengers. they say those boats are slower than the boats typically used. and if that were to happen, it would cause delays. chp is out here in full force starting tonight into tomorrow. the roads are dry. we did see some road crews sweeping the freeway to get rid of some of the debris. nep advice that we can give out there -- any advice we can give out there, slowdown or if you can work from home. >> our advice from our boss, leave early so we can drive carefully and get here safely. >> reporter: we'll be here early as well. >> thank you. crews with pg&e and caltrans are busy today preparing for the storm.

tara moriarty shows us the work being done now to help things go smoothly over the next few days. >> reporter: the main pg&e yard in fremont was bustling early this morning. >> transformers, power poles, cable automobile of this equipment will be heading out the door on tracks. they may look like robots but these are actually transformers. they are the ones that will be used to replace any transformers that should blow out during the storm. >> we are expecting winds up to 70 miles an hour which is significantly more than what we had in 2008. >> reporter: pg&e is urging customers to secure any outdoor holiday decorations so they don't get blown away. caltrans is clearing storm drains. crews used a vacuum truck yesterday to pump out debris yesterday. while people in the bay area may be hunkering down, pg&e and caltrans are switching it into

high gear. tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. >> and stay with us and ktvu.com for the latest on the approaching storming. we have more on when the storm will hit. tomorrow we'll be on the air starting at 4:00 a.m. that's tomorrow morning. you can use your interactive tools to track the rain any time. happening today, students at berkeley high school are planning to walk out in just a few hours to protest the deaths of michael brown and eric garner. yesterday, the principal of the school sent home letters urging parents to speak with their students and encourage them not to participate. as alex savidge reports, this comes after four nights of protests throughout bay area cities and he shows us how the small town of emeryville was hit hard. >> reporter: surveillance video from inside this emeryville 7- eleven captured a rowdy crowd,

breaking through the front door with a trash can. at least a dozen looters streamed inside, threatening the two clerks on duty with chunks of concrete before stealing cigarettes and other merchandise. you can see people rolling over the counter trying unsuccessfully to break into the register. this all happened just before midnight as a large crowd of protesters marched through the east bay. the vandals who broke in did several thousand dollars worth of damage. frustrating for the family who owns the store. >> i don't know if they think this is a corporate place or not. it's not. this is coming out of our pocket. >> reporter: they've owned this 7-eleven for three years. she supports the protests against police brutality but says this kind of destruction distracts from the message. >> this isn't the way to express it. i think that now all of our views on protesters in general are tar nished and ruin --

tarnished and ruined. >> reporter: police estimate there were 300 protesters. nearby, this supermarket was trashed and all of the windows were broken out at this bank of america. on this quiet street off san pablo there's still shattered glass on the ground. carol brown came outside to find the windows smashed on hemp new suv. >> we could see the cloud of people moving down the street. i didn't want to dumb out until they left. i -- i was scared. >> reporter: the 14 emeryville police officers on duty had no chance to control the crowds. >> the citizens and the people of eryville are paying for something we did not do. for whatever reason our 1.2- square mile city is the one that's suffer right now. >> reporter: police are going over video from last night's looting trying to identify and

track down the people who hijacked a demonstration and left behind a mess. alex savidge, ktvu channel 2 news. a group of white protesters outraged by the use of deadly fierce by police demonstrated today outside the oakland federal building. [chanting] >> the protesters came out and stood in front of the building's entrance in an effort to shut it down. the building, though, remained open and there were no arrests. the protesters told us they are out raged by the ongoing violations against black people's lives. >> this country and the system, the racist system by which this country operates privileges some lives more than others. we're here to say that black lives matter and than white silence equals violence. >> organizers say demonstrations like this are set to take place in 27 cities

across the country. in richmond, police and protesters came together. that's police chief chris magnus. he even held a sign that read black lives matter. at one point, police officers passed out pizza to the protesters. both sides richmond has a strong sense of community and they want that to continue. the youngest person who ever receive a nobel peace prize accepted her award and what she hopes the prize will do for other girls. the first draft of the new arena in san francisco was surprised as looking like the top of a toilet bowl. we'll show you the ren dix next. -- rendition next. [chris]still smoking up a storm? [tom]yeah.pathetic,isn't it? [chris] ever try to... [tom] quit?of course! my best time was six days. the worst was ...uh...23.4 seconds. [chris] so can i ask you... [chris & tom] why are you still smoking? [tom] [sarcastic] "it's so much fun."

[chris]why not call the smokers' helpline? the program's free,and... [tom]and they'll tell me..."you oughta quit." [chris] not so. just tell them you're ready to quit. then,they'll tell you how. [tom] really? you wouldn't have that number on you,would you?

nobel peace winner malala yousafzai today accepted her award and said she hoped the prize would inspire other girls to fight for their rights. [ applause ] >> the 17-year-old accepted the award today in norway. she's the youngest person ever to receive a nobel prize. she was shot in her pakistani village in 2012 by the taliban for advocating education for girls. >> i had two options.

one was to demand silence and wait to be killed and the second was to speak up and then be killed. i chose the second one. i decided to speak up. [ applause ] >> malala yousafzai is splitting the 1.1 million prize with an activist from india. there are new details about a shooting involving san leandro police officers, a 27- year-old woman shot by police sunday has died. investigators say the woman whose name has not been released was spotted driving a stolen vehicle in san leandro. police tried to pull her over but she led them on a pursuit into oakland. there police say the woman rammed several parked vehicles and police cars, provoking san leandro officers to open fire. a former uber driver

charged with vehicular manslaughter was in court just a few hours ago in san francisco. he was in court for arraignment but it was put off two weeks. the postponement is due to a new motion by prosecutors to seize his driver's license. the former uber driver struck and killed a 6-year-old girl on new year's eve as she and her mother were in a crosswalk on polk street. his attorney says he had the light and that this is not a case of distracted driving. >> there's no evidence of any cell phone usage, any calling, any texting, or any engagement with the uber device. it was a dark night and he made a lawful right on a green light. >> he's free on $50,000 bail. he's set to return to court on december 22nd. back to stormwatch. people around the bay area continue to rush to sandbag

stations ahead of the anticipated storm. one station in name reports that within the first three hours of opening, people filled 12 tons of sand in 3500 bags. while most people don't live in flood zones, there is concern about urban and small stream flooding. san francisco work crews are literally going to great heights to protect homes from tomorrow's big storm. we had a close look at the critical work underway on telegraph hill. 150 feet above the ground. workers are racing against the clock to stabilize the hill before the powerful storm moves in. telegraph hill has had stoernl problems for -- storm problems for a long time. >> traditionally, this was a quarry undocumented in the 1800s and early 1900s and they left it in a pretty precarious position. >> in january, 2012, a weaker storm caused a huge slide on

telegraph hill. boulders, the size of vehicles slid down the hill smashing one car and damaging an apartment building. and and a high surf advisory is in effect through early friday morning for the north bay coast including point rainious national seashore. a high surf advisory for san francisco, the peninsula and northern monterey bay runs from tonight until tomorrow. waves and surf could reach 20 feet. the parameters are really setting up for the intense downpowrbs and strong, gusty winds will be here tomorrow. here is our live camera in san jose. the calm before the storm with mostly cloudy skies. but that will be changing for tomorrow as the system moves in from the north. north bay rain develops for tonight. a chance elsewhere, where windy and heavy rain spreads south.

very intense rainfall. right now is here is the focus up towards eureka and cape mendocino. this will be a significant snow producer, we have a blizzard warning that kicks on through friday morning until 4:00. they could be measuring snowfall in terms of feet around 1 to 2 feet. blizzard warning in the sierra. we'll have very heavy rainfall to talk about in the bay area. here is a closer look at the radar show uth current pattern out there. right now, the rainfall mainly up towards mendocino county. a skew scattered showers approaching sonoma county, especially the northern portions of sonoma county. once against, the highlights with this storm a lot to talk about, you heard about the high surf advisory, wind advisory begins at 10:00 tonight. gusts easily over 60 miles an hour especially over the higher terrain and a flood watch kicks in as well. rainfall in the order of 2 to 5 inches up to 8 inches for the coastal hills. here is the wind forecast, a lot of numbers to look at here. also the arrows showing you a

southerly wind. the winds increase tonight. here we are at 10:00. this is for the morning commute. the wind gust forecast at7:00. san francisco 46 miles an hour. oakland 43. santa rosa winds out of the south at 41 and then the winds gradually back off throughout today and tomorrow especially by late tomorrow afternoon and into tomorrow night. but here we go. strong storm here with the connection all the way back toward hawaii. here is a closer look at the satellite and the radar with that rainfall up to the north. the storm track sets up camp offshore. this will generate at least the flow that sends in the heavy rain as we showed you several inches and the strong winds as well. here is the updated forecast model tonight. 6:00 showing you the chance of some rain showers especially up in the north bay. not a big deal but this will become a big deal. the increase increase in advance of the frontal system. this is the high resolution forecast picking up the detail up in the sonoma county area. this is 7:00 and then gradually spreading to the south between

8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 and then the rain line approaches the south bay. this will continue the progression into the south bay throughout the afternoon hours tomorrow. tomorrow in san francisco to oakland, you might wake up dry, that will quickly be changing as that intense rainband moves in from the north pushing to the south. and it will hold itself together nicely. forecast highs for this afternoon, a lot of 60s. mostly cloudy skies. a chance of some rain, especially for this evening especially up in the north bay. a very busy five-day forecast. we can't stress how potent this system will be for your thursday forecast. very strong winds. showers off and on into friday. but things will taper off on friday. and saturday we'll need a chance to breathe and dry out. that will be a day with partly cloudy skies. maybe a chance of a shower by later sunday and into sunday night. but a lot to attract -- a lot to track tomorrow, power outages and mudslides. >> so the ktvu weather team -- >> we're all over it. >> thank you.

dozens of law enforcement descended on a target store today. we'll show you the event to help children this holiday season.

stocks much lower in afternoon trading, weighed down by energy companies. opec has slashed its estimate of how much crude it will need to produce next year due to rising supplies. taking a live look at the big board, the dow is currently

down 217. the nasdaq is down 63. and the s&p is down 25. we're now getting a look at the latest design for the warriors new arena in san francisco. the warriors released these drafts today of the center. it will feature open space and plazas with retail and office space around the 18,000-seat arena on the waterfront. two months ago, the architects released the first draft. many critics pointed out the top of it looked like a toilet seat. the arena is expected to be built and ready to open for the start of the 2018 season. dozens of law enforcement officers got into the holiday spirit this morning by helping kids do a little christmas shopping. the 7th annual shop with a cop event got underway at a san jose target store. the program pairs up kids with an officer and they get $125 gift card. organizers say most of the children have lost a parent this year due to crime

including domestic violence in homes. >> this is the time when they expect something and then it's so sad when you cannot provide with that. it's hard. >> one officer said kids often forgo toys and game for household essentials, such as diapers. deputies took part as well as officer withs with the -- officers with the chp. birdman tops the list of nominees for the s.a.g. awards. the nominations were announced in los angeles with four going to birdman. other movies nominated were -- >> the s.a.g. awards will be presented on january 25th. bracing for wind and rain.

tonight starting at 5:00, how transit agencies and pg&e are trying to make sure you can still get around and your lights stay on during the storm tomorrow. the small but important things you might not have thought of but should do before the storm hits. thank you for making ktvu your choice for news. we're always here for you at ktvu.com and you can follow us on twitter and facebook. thanks for watching.

- welcome to awesome planet. i'm philippe cousteau. our earth continues to evolve everyday but oftentimes in subtle ways that most of us don't even recognize. but every once in a while, a major event reminds us of the raw power of mother nature. (uptempo music) in this episode, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis. we're talking biology, we're talking geology, we're talking history. join me, philippe cousteau, as we explore our rumbling earth on awesome planet. (uptempo music)