. >> and rick boone talking about bay area teams heading out to help. set the scene there for us. it looks beautiful right now. >> reporter: it's a beautiful day here in miami. not a cloud in the sky. we do know in 24 hours things will change dramatically as hurricane irma nears. this is the calm before the storm and local leaders are warning people get out now while you have the chance. already we've seen evacuations and airports are shutting down today. hurricane irma pounding the turks and caicos, a preview of what the u.s. coast can expect. >> florida will have major hurricane impacts with deadly storm surge and life threatening winds. >> reporter: the race is on to get out of the storm's path. at miami international airport a flight out of town is hard to come by. >> i got a ticket for $700, i refreshed it and it was gone. >> reporter: all major airlines are suspending service tonight. many passengers can do little but hope and wait. >> we're at their mercy at the moment. >> reporter: leaving by car isn't much easier. lines for gas are long and traffic is snarled. >> horrible

. >> we want to turn to rick boone live in mountain view. rescue crews are about to take off to florida. morning, rick. >> reporter: rescue crews are about to leave here in a few hours from now from the california air national guard, the 129th rescue wing. those are the folks up in the choppers. very, very much needed. they'll have a chance to swoop in after rescue helicopters are pulling people out to safety. the deployment that they're going to be going to will be coming just days after they return here back at home from hurricane harvey. they leave this location in a few hours. we'll go inside to get an idea about the techniques on the ground when they arrive in florida later on today. they are doing what they can to get out of harm's way. we're live at moffitt's field, rick boone for "today in the bay." >> thank you very much, rick the task force based in menlo park returned yesterday now packing up for florida. crews are on their way to florida today. kari hall has been treating updates about the storm all morning long. you can follow us

rick boone joins us live at the bay bridge to find the bans before they rob another toll taker, rick. >> reporter: they hit up the two places yesterday and police are wondering whether or not they are connected to two other poll booth robberies this year. they're trying to connect the dots tonight. this is while the toll booth operators behind me -- they're concerned if they could end up being the next victim in the string of robberies. >> i think anybody that points a gun and demands money can be considered as dangerous people. >> reporter: on sunday toll takers at two bay bridges were robbed at gunpoint. the first location, bridge toll plaza around 4:00 a.m. appear then thundershowers hours later around 2 "p" a tool booth at the bay bridge. the robbers grabbed more than $4,000 between both bridges. >> it's just not just the toll dlekt collectser put in jeopardily also metroists. >> they were armed wearing hoodies and latex gloves. in each case they drove a mercedes with car max dealer plalts. the many of the drivers are now worried for the toll booth operators. >> pretty scarey. and

rick boone is live in the bay area's response, already under way and rick, this is -- they're trying to get ahead of this. >> reporter: yeah, you know, we have a lot of folks here in the bay area who are doing their part to get ahead of the storm. not only first responders, but a lot of people here at pge. we have 100 crews throughout the entire system that are now preparing to head to florida, nine people from this location, their goal when they get on the ground supporting florida power workers after hurricane irma moves in. heading to south florida will be pge line workers, equipment operators and support staff. they are going to flying to florida tomorrow, crews will bring some of their equipment, but they will also be using the florida power trucks to get their work done according to officials, they're ready to get to work. >> as soon as they get to florida, they'll be staging in a safe area, and once everything calms down enough to go out and do that work, they'll be working side by side with florida power and light getting the power restored. >> reporter: now once again with t

live in san jose, rick boone for "today in the bay." >> families paying close attention to that. thank you. >>> more details now. we have researched the bay area housing market. a report from the california association of realtors shows the median price for a single family home in the bay area, not a townhouse or condo is more than $908,000. a combination of job growth, low inventory and good mortgage rates driving prices higher. statewide, the five counties with the lowest inventory are all in the bay area, san mateo, santa clara and contra costa. last week, i filed a detailed report and talked to experts about this topic. you can find the story at www.nbcbayarea.com. >>> investigators are releasing detailses about the bizarre attempted robbery investigation. an oakland woman tells us she was handsed a note while on the bart train, a note demanding she give up her wallet and phone claiming two guns were pointed at her. the suspected robber may have been caught on surveillance video. you are looking at it now. the woman there, strawberry blond wearing sunglasses told the would be

. >> meteorologist kari hall tracking that but let's start out with rick boone who's live there this morning. good morning, rick. >> kwlee. >> morning to you too. it's going to be devastating fact what irma's expected to do to the state of florida along the atlantic coast. that's why today it is packing day for some 100 pg&e workers system wide, nine members from this location here, they're all heading to florida. when they get on the ground in florida they're going to be supporting florida power. after the hurricane moves on, heading to south florida will be pg&e line workers, equipment operators, support staff. they'll be heading to florida actually tomorrow. so today they pack, tomorrow me fly over there. they're going to bring some equipment with them but they'll be using florida power trucks do the repair work as irma moves on. this isn't the first time that the pg&e crews have helped out during a florida disaster. they assisted last year during hurricane matthew put may be wondering if pg aep e crews or on the ground in houston right now. answer to that is no. the reason why is

with two live reports, sarah rosario will join us and our rick boone is in mountain view as crews prepare to head to florida. >>> happening today in the east bay another urban shield training will be met with protests. urban shield is the federally funded police program that focuses on first responder training. however, critics say it militarizes the police. coming up in the next hour "today in the bay's" kris sanchez will update us on the future of that training program. happening today in san jose, today's hearing to decide whether or not to put the cases of all five suspects together or to separate them. you may recall mis flo was brutally beaten to death during a home robbery. the 88-year-old was a pillar of her east san jose community. two men including her 19-year-old neighbor are facing murder charges. the other three suspects were arrested in connection with the crime. >>> 4:37. happening today former president bill clinton will be in san francisco. he's giving a keynote address for a private ceremony honoring a bay area civil rights activist. amos brown has spent 40 years at thir

we're live in hayward, rick boone for today in the bay. >>> let's check in with meteorologist kari hall who's been tracking the storm's path. >> we are going to see this storm unfortunately remaining a category five hurricane over the next several days. this storm has really held its own and even as it interacts with some of these islands over right now the dominican republic and hate tliiti we are still se this remain a very powerful category five hurricane. wind speeds of 180 miles per hour. now the forecast over the next several days keeps temperature just north of cuba and affecting parts of the bahamas as we go into friday night. but some of the rain bands will start to reach into florida as we talked about as early as friday night. and throughout the day on sunday, we are expecting it to make landfall as the possibility of a category four hurricane still very powerful and we are going to possibly still see some more shifts in this track but we have to keep in mind that this hurricane is about five to 600 miles wide so the swath of the damage will be very extensive as it moves off

live in san jose, rick boone nabz bay area. >> thank you. >>> well does google pay the female employees less for doing similar work as men? google is responding tonight to a lawsuit filed earlier today. the suit filed in san francisco by three former google employees, all women, claiming the company zrimts against women by paying less. the lawsuit seeks back pay and other compensation. in a statement sent to nbc bay area google disagrees saying it has systems no place to ensure equal pay for equal work. >>> okay did you feel it? earthquakes in two hours. two earthquakes in two hours in east san jose. they weren't very big. but the first one measuring 3.3 delivered a sharp jolt about 10:30 this morning. the epicenter you can see in the east foothills of san jose north of alma rock park. this is how it looked on the size mow graph. the second quake in the same area with a 2.6 magnitude. that one struck in the noon hour. >>> still to come, new video reveals there may have been an early sign something illegal was happening at the ghost ship warehouse in oakland more than a year before the d

rick boone nbc bay area news. >> we will see you at 6:00. >>> a car break in in oakland is getting attentionhe victim is an off duty police officer. among the items stolen from the car, two guns. the officers's suv was in a restaurant parking lot just west of 88 oh 0. the burglar smashed a window to get in. the officer is from the taft police department. a gun stolen from law enforcement vehicles have been used in recent high profile murtds. the investigative unit is tracking stolen guns in the bay area. the assistant of oakland ranks second in stolen gun reports. the numbers show between 2010 and 2015, oakland police had at least 957 reports. the san jose police department had more. we have a whole section devoted to reports on stolen guns. just go to the investigative tab at the top of our website, nbc bay area.com. >>> the controversial speakers may not have shone up at cal process but police and counterdemonstrators have been out in force. how long will it last. >> coming up have you seen it? the billboard has a lot of people. it called for the impeachment of president trump but where di

live in san jose, rick boone. >> thank you, rick. >>> we have researched the bay area housing market overnight. a report from the california association of realtors says the median price for a single family home is over 908,0$908,000. a combination of job growth and low inventory is driving the prices higher. interest rates are good, too. the five counties with the lowest inventory are the bay area. san mateo tops, alameda. i filed a row port talking about this topic. you can find it on www.nbcbayarea.com. >>> bart investigators are releasing details about a bizarre attempted robbery. an oakland woman says she was handed a note on a bart train demanding she give up her wallet and phone while two guns were pointed at her. they say the robbery may have been caught on surveillance camera. you are looking at it right now. we are going to show you -- there it is right there. she is a strawberry blond woman. the would be victim says she faked a seizure. the suspect then took off. >>> a deputy is under investigation after his gun was stolen from his car. this happened on sunday. the gun was

that's where rick boone is at the scene. do we know why this might have happened, rick? >> reporter: well, we are still piecing this together right now, from witnesses here on the grouped, and same from the police department. but i big thing i can tell you is the officer's name is not being released as of yet and department is not being released as of yet until next of kin are notified. here at nbc we are responsible journalists and won't make assumptions. but cleanup, see the motorcycle, that's the motorcycle that the officer was riding on during this fatality. this all happened before 6:00 a.m. and it was total dark and all he heard was the impact of the crash. according to a witness, traveling north on monterey and in turn lay for chester avenue and turned into the path of that 44-year-old motorcycle driver. that 44-year-old motorcycle driver a law enforcement officer who was on that motorcycle killed in that collision. that was a major shock to those who were just inches away from where this happened. this happened right in front of a convenience store. >> i don't se