leann melendez has more. >> reporter: taking a big risk by opening a flower shop in alameda weeks beforethanksgiving. >> we do locally grown flowers, just something that people are hungry for. something that is fresh and new. >> reporter: she sells flowers that are green in half moon bay and petaluma. that is something her customers appreciate. other business owners in alameda hope that small town flavor will attract more customers here on the so-called small business saturday. that's when they encourage consumers to spend at their neighborhood establishments on the saturday after thanksgiving. >> i like to shop at the local meat market it is wonderful. i just came from the children's shop, i have two grandchildren. >> reporter: judy is with the west alameda business association. >> it is bringing more people from the outside in. that is a challenge. they tend to go to the malls. >> reporter: according to the small business administration, these smaller establishments have been particularly affected bay the hard economic times. this shopping day was first introduced by american express.

in alameda, leann melendez, abc7 news. >>> big story everyday especially this weekend, and weather. >oing to be a problem for some, right now the rain is moving through on schedule also out of here by about noon just a stray shower is possible for rest of the afternoon into the evening if you are heading out to do some shopping say before midnight. embarcadero downtown san francisco, all the way down to the ferry building and the bay bridge, all wet now. cold front moving through you can see the sharp line, no radar return, san francisco, richmond up 80, fairfield, dixon into sacramento south of that light rain for the next couple of hours. here you go, just drizzle north bay patchy fog may form over the next couple of hours or so if the sky does clear enough. santa cruz mountains, rain moving into the heart of the south bay, rainfall total fairly light outside of the north bay where we've had half an inch in petaluma, 4/10 in mill valley napa 2/10 hundreds of an inch around san francisco, concord, san ramon, less than 5/100 right now. if you are leaving 49 in antioch, 48 fairfield th

abc 7's education reporter leann melendez has the story from santa clara. >> 312. >> oh! >> one, two, three. >> using smart boards and a hands-on approach to these fourth graders at heyman elementary are mastering their fractions. their teacher has undergone hours of training. the new math program will be taught to all teachers in santa clara grades third through fifth. >> there will be two summer institutes are people can come and delve into the content and take that back to their classroom during the year. work together. coach each other. get more training so they can really deepen and strengthen that content. >> it's part of texas instruments' power of stem education initiative. stem calls for science, technology, engineering and math. >> in this grant we're focusing on third to fifth grade because if you don't get kids interested by fifth grade, oftentimes you lose them and they won't go on to take science and technology and mathematics in high school and beyond. >> santa clara's 17 elementary schools received a $100,000 grant from t.i. in september, texas instruments

we have two reports tonight beginning with leanne melendez. >> that is spot on calling it mother of all water main breaks. it happened about 9:45. six homes had to be evacuated. this resident had to be rescued. speed with mud and rocks made it impossible for some to get out. >> took time to get my grandparents ready. we wheeled them across the street. >> the garage was flooded. we had to open the back doors to the garage so water can go back to the river if the back of house, anyway. >> the gushing water resemble aid geyser, spewing into two directions. >> and i thought it was raining. >> it's like san bruno in the making. >> the pipe broke was a 12 inch feeder line, connected to a larger five-foot main. >> so these are two lines that actually bring the regional water, hetch hetchy into the 26 wholesalers that are getting water from us, then, they deliver in the east bay. >> both lines had been replace bid the san francisco puc. the water had to be diverted before shutting off. sky 7 showed the moment they finally did, three and a half hours later. the massive amount of water had underm