let's bring in cheryl hurd from albany with more intense video just into the newsroom. we've been around here many years. we don't see these things too often, do we? >> reporter: no, we don't. it's kind of exciting when we do. tree companies were super busy over the weekend with all that heavy rain, the ground was saturated. trees were falling left and right. and with all this going on right now, we just don't know what to expect. by looking at this video, you'd think you were in kansas. it's actually home video of a rare sight, a tornado spotted north of sacramento. >> she comes running through the door about five minutes later, the fire whistles started to blow. everybody's phone started to ring. we just took the kids, went out the backdoor. >> reporter: a warning was issued and a bus carrying students waited at a nearby high school until the warning was lifted. it's just another twist in the bizarre weather. a tornado touched down in santa rosa on friday. hail in san jose this afternoon, it wasn't golf-size hail but enough to see and hear. 14 sailboats and one house

cheryl hurd has been on campus all day. tell us about the police now arriving. >> reporter: well, jessica, the protestors are above, and police are just arriving. just moments ago they just kind of swarmed the about 200 protestors below. they said they had a plan. it looks like the plan is effect. they're surrounding the protestors below, and if i had a crystal ball, i would suspect they're working their way up to the ledge up above to get the protestors from up above. we're going to hang on this just for a little while, but in a moment let's roll the videotape so you can see what's up above. we shot videotape earlier today so you can see the protestors above. protestors are chained together, arms covered with a metal material. it's difficult for police to tear them apart. i believe that's the whole idea. this is a day after a day of action when 17 people were arrested for protesting for -- fortress -- for trespassing. it looks like the the police are moving in. they're stepping in and squeezing the crowd and making sure th

reporting live in martinez, i'm cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> got to keep those handy, thank you, cheryl. >>> a sonoma county man is lucky to be alive tonight. the roof of his house in monterio stopped a giant tree from landing on his head. the man heard loud noises outside and he went to investigate just as the tree came down. also in sonoma county, a tree took out an entire neighbor's power supply. >> in san jose a rush-hour rescue on highway 87. a driver spotted a man in the fast-moving guadalupe prifrp he saw the man clinging onto a tree in the river and then called for help. rescue crews searched the frigid water and found the man even further down the river. the victim had been in the water three times before he was boated back to safety. now word how he wound up in the guadalupe river but it's a reminder how fast and frigid our waterways are during thes storms. >>> in the oakland hills, take a look, streets turning into rivers here. nonstop rain caused soggy lopes to come sliding right down. at shepard canyon and eshe. the driver had to be helped to safety. >>> certainly y

. >> cheryl hurd has a story you'll only see here on bay area hughes. >> reporter: opening up a placein east oakland in what some people call the killing zone, they thought he was crazy. >> people laughed at me and said, man, are you crazy? they're going to rip you off. you'll never have it down there. >> reporter: for the past 23 years, his power alley gym has been a mixture seemed out of place. >> when they come here, they learn how to train and do it right. >> that's because he taught m s mims. >> reporter: he was in "deadpool" alongside clint eastwood. he decided to stay here and run his gym. >> once i got to a person point, i wanted to open up a gym. >> reporter: he helped people like jordan pierce who grew up in east oakland and mary hicks who start ed. i knew i needed exercise to. >> i just graduated from college. i kid you not, i was in the bed. >> she trnz formed from this . >> reporter: cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> seven years later and still unsolved. a mother and daughter viciously beaten and murdered in the middle of the night. >> my experience tells me that uspect

cheryl hurd has the latest from san pablo where the earth is still sliding. cheryl? >> reporter: it is indeed, garvin. the damage you see here is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. who's going to pay for it is thth ththe million-dollar question. leon walker is watching his backyard go from this to this. it's slowly slipping away after last week's san pablo hills landslide. >> i can't get any equipment out here to shore this up. but if i do, that's still there. so it would be moot for me to do anything to this. if they don't address that. or the problem that they didn't address in '75. >> reporter: walker showed us these photos from 1975. you see the debris left behind from a home that slid down the hill during a landslide them. walker says he didn't know about the landslide threat before moving in. san pablo city officials are declaring a state of emergency on yellow-tagged homes on wyman and hillcrest streets. the cleanup is going to cost thousands of dollars. money the city says it doesn't have. >> i don't know what the costs of this repair c

she arrived here on monday with her two daughters to escape radiation exposure. >> that was cheryl hurd. there is a strong support system including these young people who raised $500 in two days. students at stanford put together a website, stand with japan, all the money goes directly to the relief efforts in japan. the u.s. also delivering relief supplies to japan, a u.s. cargo plane, air force plane, left pearl harbor in honolulu headed to japan with four generators and 25 u.s. air force support personnel. the plane will land to help with disaster relief and building efforts. i do want to make a clarification. we said iodine a short time ago. iodine is poisonous. iodide is something you can take, not that we're necessarily recommending it, that you can take to fight radiation sickness. >> the shape of the san francisco bay area could protect most of the surrounding area from a tsunami. scientists say the narrow opening of a channel creates the bottle neck that would reduce the amount of inland flooding the south bay and much of the peninsula would be spared from the type of surge tha

. >> cheryl hurd now joining us from mill valley, thousands of kids forced to stay home today because schools were closed. any word yet for tomorrow, the schools? >> well, raj, i hate to be the bearer of bad news for the hundreds of kids that got the day off today, but school will be in session tomorrow. it's not raining in mill valley, but businesses are prepared, as you can see, the sandbags are out. earlier today, the winds were nothing to play with. >> strong wind in the early morning, a big signal for a couple in the north bay city of monte rio that danger was near. just around 9:00 this morning, this tree came crashing down on their home. >> he came out and was standing here under the roof when the tree fell down. thank god it broke its fall on the roof and it was directly over his head. >> a lot of damage, no one was hurt. and people escaping injury in northwest sonoma county. this fir tree took out a string of utility poles. >> some major damage to the utilities this morning. it was caused by a douglas fir tree, three foot at the base, maybe 185 feet tall. and it took out all

our cheryl hurd joining us from campus live at the scene with the very latest. cheryl. >> reporter: that day of action taking place all day long here at uc-berkeley campus and ending here at wheeler hall tonight. at about 10:00 tonight, police telling protesters inside the j to vacate the building. about a dozen people stayed behind. several people did leave. but as you can see, one by one, they were arrested. some of them chanting, "no cuts, no fees." others chanting, "we are doing this for your kids." one student telling me tonight why they are here. >> they can raise fees 32% every time an economic crisis happens. those happen every eight years. what's going to happen to our children? that's what this is about. >> reporter: an interesting sidenote to tonight's protests, there are a lot of police presence and sometimes more police than protesters. many of them from san francisco state. some of them from alameda county sheriff's department. others from berkeley campus police. a preemptive strike, they are telling me tonight. they just wanted to make sure that th

nbc bay area's cheryl hurd is in walnut creek to sort that out for us. cheryl? >> reporter: well, what i learned tonight was mind-blowing, and most of the information comes from a noted doctor here in the bay area. >> there is no danger of radiation coming this far, even the worst case over there. >> reporter: bill watenberg knows about radiation. >> airline crew members get ten times flying day in and day out. the worst that could come over from those nuclear plants in japan, 100th of 1% of that. >> reporter: he is a noted scientist, inventor and talk radio host, who says no one here will get sick from the traces of radiation that may make it here to the bay area. >> you know they said they measured increased rates in tokyo, the increase rate they meant -- mentioned is less than what you get if you are leaning over your granite countertop. granite is naturally radioactive. >> reporter: watenberg says radiation is a foreign word because a lot of people just don't understand what it is. he says radiation is like a wood stove and people should treat it that way. >

cheryl hurd joins us from berkeley with those results. >> reporter: rain here in the bay area is raising concerns. some people worry japan's nuclear disaster will mean that radiation levels here will increase to unhealthy levels. >> i have a feeling it's going to increase. it's not going to be pretty. but hopefully it's not too dangerous. >> reporter: measurements are in progress right now in a lab at uc-berkeley's campus. >> as of last wednesday we started to collect air samples, and as of friday, saturday, we started to also collect rain. >> reporter: around the clock analysis shows a definite increase in radiation levels in water and air. but -- >> we should not be concerned. the amount of radiation we are observing here from japan is extremely small and should not cause any problem, any concern for us and our health. >> reporter: he says the testing is important because it helps nuclear engineers understand radiation and also helps calm the fears of the public. >> these are so sensitive and the signals we're looking for so weak that we have to shield the detector from the background

nbc bay area cheryl hurd joining us now. cheryl, you were the first reporter on the scene last night and now you continue our coverage, a lot of tension. a lot of police overtime costs. was it worth it for the students, and is this over? >> reporter: it was definitely worth it for the students who spent seven hours here on the ledge at wheeler hall. last night 17 people were arrested and tonight it was a different story. the protesters from above were greeted below with hugs and kiss fressupporters. one of the aids who spent seven hours on the ledge says, she feels vindicated. >> the administration doesn't really listen to the students so we're just happy that they listened to us this time. >> reporter: protesters believed that the administration listened because nine students chained themselves together on the fourth floor of wheeler hall just before 2:00 this afternoon. one person tried get back in through the window and was arrested. so eight remained. we talked to one of them during the protest. >> we're really concerned

nbc's cheryl hurd is live in san francisco's japantown with a look back at what the japanese people have and how the world has really embraced them, cheryl. >> reporter: that's right. we are live in the peace plaza in skbra pantown in san francisco. and tonight we got a chance to look at some amazing pictures out of japan. and we want to bring them to you tonight. in just a single week in japan, the phrase "worst case scenario" has been redefined. words like "unimaginable, unthinkable, even unacceptable" are thrown about. and yet even they don't convey the escalating horror. but rising out of it all is evidence the human spirit can overcome even this. there's proof in the sacrifice of these chopper pilots. braving radiation as they fly low over leaking reactors. there's proof in the relief workers who have rushed from more than 100 countries. and most of all, there's proof in the workers inside the plant. the unseen heroes known as the fukushima 50, trying to avert a meltdown. bravery comes in odd places these days. especially when things seem to have returned to normal. with no fuel, pa

cheryl hurd rode along with officers as they tried to nab the pumps and save the girls. >> we have a female hispanic there as well. >> reporter: oakland police department's child exploitation unit is preparing for a bust. using marked cash the unit is getting ready. the target, teenager prostitutes. >> it's a lot more lucrative than drugs. you have to buy the product, then you have to try to sell the product again. >> reporter: jim has worked in the unit for a decade. >> say, you're my girlfriend, i love you, then they ease them into it. then the girl pump will be gang raped until she agrees to do it. >> reporter: there are hundreds of girls working as prostitutes in oakland and many are doing it against their will. >> all of these are offenders or child predators in some way. whether they molested family members or friends all the way to pumps who have put children on the streets of oakland. >> reporter: the department is throwing a lot of resources and money at the problem. >> the days of being able to tell that a girl is being exploited by the way that she's dressed or the way she

nbc bay area's cheryl hurd joins us from hercules with a lesson for every homeowner. it brings up serious issues about disclosure here, doesn't it? >> reporter: yes, it does. many left here tonight not knowing if their homes can be saved. this man has been documenting this home since 2008. two days after he got the keys and took over the title, he said he got this letter declaring it a public nuisance. the first indication for him, he bought a home in a mudslide zone. the recent series of storms put at least seven other homes in the same boat he is in. >> even if they demolish the four homes right now, you heard mr. mcguire saying that the homes are now acting as a retaining wall for the hill. it will slide across the street, too. >> that's why dozen of homeowners packed the council members. many own homes on carson street right in the path of what is called the carson slide zone. >> should i walk away? stop making my payments? foreclosure? and then move where? >> reporter: homeowners in many bay area neighborhoods are asking the same questions. three homes in san pab

let's bring in nbc bay area's cheryl hurd who joins us with late-breaking details. first, what's tainteded? is there any type of warning at this stage? >> reporter: well, we're talking about tap water and milk. and there are no warnings tonight. but the trace levels of radiation found in tap water and milk are very, very low. but trace levels have been found in 14 states including spokane, washington. but for scientists' point of view, this is big news. scientists here at uc-berkeley have made a new discovery. >> we bought milk from our neighborhood store here. and we started to measure it. and as of last night, we see small amounts of iodine even in our milk. >> reporter: sounds scary, but uc-berkeley nuclear engineer says we should not be alarmed. >> the amounts are still very sma small. >> reporter: radiation is everywhere in our environment. what's interesting is radiation from japan has traveled all the way here. >> as a scientist, it's interesting to study the pathway from japan to here and then the distribution and the dilution here in our environment. >> rep

our cheryl hurd is live in concord. boy, the hits keep on coming for folks there. >> reporter: they do, jessica. you know, this meeting just ended moments ago. parents and teachers coming out in force. you know, schools are closing in this district. and parents know that more cuts are on the horizon. >> i could not imagine experiencing anything greater than that. >> reporter: you can hear the emotion in concord. parents and students still reeling from the closure of two schools in their district are vowing to fight to keep what they have left. >> i refuse to stand behind the board that treats my children as if they are petty cash and me as if i am unintelligent and disposable. >> reporter: the new challenge, $28 million in proposed cuts to help balance the school district's budget. 180 positions could be cut including teachers, custodian, librarians and the entire vocal music program for elementary students. programs that teach students to play instruments are already gone. this is a major blow for students who live in

nbc bay area's cheryl hurd was at that meet tonight. she joins us live to tell us what she learned. >> reporter: jessica, people are hungry for information all over the world. especially here on uc-berkeley's campus where there are a number of experts with answers. >> traffic jam happened everywhere. >> reporter: a room filled with concerned people on uc-berkeley's campus, many wanting answers about what appears to be an escalating nuclear crisis in japan. >> you cannot get out of japan right now. it's impossible to move. so should they stay? should they try to move? people are trying to make decisions. >> reporter: the latest reports out of japan say the country has 48 hours to prevent a meltdown at the power plant. there are conflicting reports out of japan on the severity of the situation. >> my guess is the things were happening so fast and changing so fast, they had so few people on the spot because of the high radiation levels that they just couldn't assess the whole thing. >> they cannot make a mistake or conflict or comments or

cheryl hurd joins us from oakland. >> reporter: jessica, we all know that oakland's police department is understaffed and sometimes outgunned. but one of their top priorities is to find underage prostitutes. and tonight, we got a rare glimpse of a unit whose job is to save the victims and arrest the pimps. oakland police department vice and child exploitation unit preparing for a bust. >> this is a massage parlor operation. >> reporter: using marked cash, the unit is getting ready. the target, teenage prostitutes. >> it's a lot more lucrative than udrugs. it's easier to sell the product. with a girl, there's no overhead. snatch her off the corner. >> reporter: jim is one year from retirement and has worked in the unit for a decade. >> the pimps at first, oh, you're my girlfriend. i love you, i love you and ease them into it. then there's a girl pimp that will beat her, have his friends gang rape her until she agrees to do it. >> reporter: there are hundreds of underage girls working as prostitute in oakland, and many are doing it against their will. >> all of these are offenders of ch

beautiful, good set. >> and that was cheryl hurd reporting.a bay area college hockey team is back on the ice after fending off accusations of drinking and hazing at a team event. the san jose state hockey team is kopg back from a six-game suspension handed down after a parent accused players of hazing underage team members while they traveled to a team event. there were also unsubstantiated reports of a youtube video allegedly showing team members drinking. joining me this morning is the leader of the san jose state university ice hockey team it, andy dickerson. thank you for joining us. we should say you're looking scruffy because you're head into the the playoffs. >> we are. as soon as we're cleared to play, we started growing beards. we're looking not quite as presentable as we want to but it's a good cause. >> a six-game suspension has to be a huge distraction. six games seems a little harsh. what do you think about the allegations and knowing you guys were cleared, how are you feeling about that? >> i mean, we let it the investigation run

cheryl hurd is reporting on what's tainted. >> reporter: trace levels of radiation have been found in tap water and milk, but the levels are very, very low. but from a scientist's point of view, this is big news. scientists here at uc berkeley made a new discovery. >> she bought milk from our neighborhood store here, generaleric milk, and we decided to measure the levels last night. we do see some small amounts of iodine and 131 in our milk. >> reporter: sounds scary but uc berkeley nuclear engineer kyle vetter says we should not be alarmed. >> the amounts in the milk are still small. >> reporter: radiation is everywhere in our environment, but radiation from japan has traveled all the way here. >> scientists have it interesting study the pathway from japan to here and then the distribution and the dill lucien here in our environment. >> reporter: last week trace levels of radiation from the japanese plant showed up in rainwater and air samples here on campus. we learned then that you would have to drink 500 liters of it to have any impact on people. the average person drinks two ligh

reporting live, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> we want to bring in jeff and rob. >> jeff is live in san francisco with a look he waves we'at the seeing, bru rut rob has a look how the surf has managed to travel from half a world away. >> especially when you consider we started watching will this at about 10:00 last night yet it took 10 or 11 hours to move across the pacific ocean. when we talk about tsunami forecasting, it comes down to the generation of the event and then the energy radiates outward, travels, eventually running up along the coast. and you can see hour by hour we have buoys and reporting stations offshore that can track how strong it passed as it approached the coast. a tsunami is much different than the average wave. a tsunami wave length as it nears the coast is almost 120 miles long. so it can last 20 to 30 minutes between the time the water comes in and out of a harbor or bay. also does it arrive at low tad oig or high tide and what is the slope angle. and that is precisely the reason why all around california we saw all different types of tsunami wave height

cheryl hurd joins us from berkeley with the test results. cheryl. >> reporter: raj, nuclear engineers at uc berkeley are leading the way when it comes to research on radiation from japan, and tonight they say the test results are in. rain here in the bay area is raising concerns. some people worry japan's nuclear disaster will mean radiation levels here will raise to unhealthy levels. >> i have a feeling it will increase, but hopefully it's not too dangerous. >> reporter: measurements are in progress right now in a lab at uc berkeley's campus. >> as of last wednesday we star started to collect air samples. as of friday and saturday we collected rain. >> reporter: an around of clock analysis shows a definite increase in water and air. >> we should not be concerned. the amount of radiation from japan is extremely install and shouldn't cause any problem or concern for us and our health. >> buddy says the testing is important because it helps nuclear engineers understand radiation, and it helps calm the fears of public. >> this detectors are so s

reporting live in lafayette, i'm cheryl hurd, "nbc bay area news." >> thank you. some more inspiring angles of this story. >>> henry waxman is calling for nuclear safety hearings on capitol hill. the southern california congressman is asking how safe are the two aging plants along our coast. >> for some perspective on how we compare to japan, the u.s. gets 20% of the electricity from nuclear power. we have 104 plants in the u.s. of those 23 reactors have the same design as the reactor as at fukushima number 1. the two nuke plar power plants in california is located 185 miles south of san jose. tonight, though, we go to diablo canyon to see what's being done to make sure what happens in japan doesn't happen here. with health risk rising in japan, the california state university system isn't taking any chances with student safety. csu shutting down programs in japan and helping get students out. universities are also coordinating evacuations for students in the bay area from japan who want to go home. we're in san francisco, and jean, you talked to students in the b

reporting live in berkeley, i'm cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> we'll keep an eye on things, thank you. >>> a three-day hearing into the san bruno gas line explosion wrapped up in washington, d.c., today with a loud and clear message. changes must be made. the chair woman of the hearings says the accident highlighted a pattern of recurring safety problems. and people in san bruno watching the hearing certainly agreed with that. kimberly terry is in the community that was torn apart almost a half year ago now. >> reporter: the residents we talked to all told us the same thing, they want pg&e to step up and take more responsibility. they also want assurance that something is being done to prevent this from happening again. >> the third and final day of testimony in a federal hearing on the explosion of a san bruno pipeline focused on safety and testing. the ntsb sought the advice of national and global experts on pipeline safety in hopes of preventing another disaster. last september pg&e workers took nearly an hour and a half to shut off the natural gas to the pipeline that pufrt. t

cheryl hurd takes us around the east bay to see what people are waking up to this morning. >> reporter: floodwaters got so high on fort chicago highway in the small town of clive that the road was closed. the water so dangerously high that contra costa county sheriff deputy drove some people to their homes in four-wheel drive vehicles. on the other side of the county in martinez people watched el hambra creek rise while those downtown put out water bags just in case. >> the streets were pretty full, but i wasn't too worried until we got an alert from the police department. about 4:00 i put bags out. >> reporter: in the oakland hills pg&e crews working overtime to restore power after a giant tree toppled over ripping down power lines. >> the tree came down literally right next to the house and did not even break any windows. >> reporter: he was lucky. usgs officials are working on a monitoring system that shows that the ground is oversaturated meaning huge trees can fall over at any time and the ground is ripe for a mud slide. >> we see a lot of trees falling over around here, but, you

reporting live in oakland, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >> thank you, cheryl. >>> south bay leaders say the congressional earmarks will help save lives. this is why. they broke ground on an industrial overpass in an area for notorious deadly train accidents, including the one that took the life of a 2-year-old boy. damian trujillo is here with the difference that it could can make. damian? >> reporter: it will go up right here by the end of the year and it was a close call and the death of a little boy that helped speed up the project. on these tracks that nearly 80 miles per hour, a train ran over 2-year-old alexander back in 2005. >> the little boy was killed and it was truly tragic. >> reporter: the toddler wandered from his baby sitter and the train struck him. yet, knowing about the tragedy doesn't keep dozens of people from their daily illegal tricks across the track gls do you know how dangerous it is? >> yes. i worked in laos and daily i had to cross over here. >> there was a huge community on the east side of the track that has no accessibility to the west side other than c

reporting live, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> this is coming out of oakland where there has been a bad crash involving a stolen car. oakland police say that the car involved in the intersection at 60th and camden was carjacked last thursday. this is what we heard a short time ago. an hour and a half ago cop spotted the driver of a stolen car running two stop signs and then slamming into another car. inside that car, two adults and four children. they were hurt. the police are telling us there are injuries that are not life threatening. as for the driver of the stolen car, we have not gotten any information on that but we have a news crew en route to the scene. >>> let's turn our attention to the development now in japan. so many stories happening in japan and the bay area. the battle continues. >> there is a measure of success to tell you about where engineers have laid down the portion of a power line to that damaged reactor at the fukushima power plant. that line could help restore the cooling system which all of them were damaged in last week's earthquake and the tsunami. so f