Transcripts For KNTV NBC Bay Area News 20171208

Of my ability. Heather teeon, at halftime, dan quinn said to your guys this will come down to final two minutes of this game. How did the defense clamp down in the final minutes. We always got our brothers backs. They go out there and they pass the baton to us. Thats how we roll. Mchk congrats on great win. Mike. Mike okay, heather, thank you. Detroit, green bay and dallas fans. We have seven teams in the afc that have it a wins. Theyre at 66. Little separation in this very big separation week within the nfc. Cris ill say this about the nfc i cant wait to watch the playoffs. Twos the best team . You know what i mean, its the you have to figure out exactly as they jockeying around this week in particular, theyre all sort of playing each other again. Mike thats right. Top seven teams. The one team thats not playing an nfc heavy weight is seattle and they go to jacksonville. This will sort out. Atlanta gave themselves a chance to repeat as division champions. Cris the game was relatively sloppy tonight. You didnt see the crisp offenses were used to seeing particularly with these two quarterbacks out there. But that was a gutcheck and thats what football is all about. Especially on thursday night. You have on go out there and figure out a way to fight to the end. Its not going to be pretty. Atlanta falcons came out of here with a very tough win. Mike on sunday night, another division battle. Rivalries are hard to come by in a transient era. But pittsburgh baltimore have maintained. Cris lot of chippiness, too, theyll be going at it on sunday night. Mike what a start to week she of the nfl season, atlanta scored ten in Fourth Quarter to get the win, 2017. Back for a final thought right after this. Really . Really . Really . Really . Really . Really . See zero in a whole new way. Get zero down, zero deposit, zero first months payment, and zero due at signing on select volkswagen models. Now with the people first warranty. We have a fantastic show tonight. James franco is our guest. Niall hourian is here. Plus, nfl superlatives here. Plus christmas sweaters. You dont want to miss it. Thank you for watching the volkswagen suv postgame report. Next stop, sunday night the rivalry of the afc north the ravens and the steelers. Coverage begins at 7 00 eastern. Next thursday, von miller and the broncos head to indianapolis, well show most of it from skycam 7 30 eastern time. Our final tonight here in Atlanta Falcons 20, new orleans saints, 17. Coming up next, stay tuned for your local news and those of you watching on nfl network its the mazda postgame show. For the entire crew, mike tirico, thanks for watching and good night from atlanta. Nbc sports, home of super bowl lii, thanks you for watching this presentation of the National Football league. A tiny sword . Bread. Breadstick . A matchstick a lamppost coin slot no . Uhhh. 10 seconds. A stick a Walking Stick eiffel tower, Mount Kilimanjaro ding time sorry, its a tandem bicycle. What . What . as long as sloths are slow, you can count on geico saving folks money. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. How much money do you think youll need in retirement . Then we found out how many years that money would last them. How long do you think well keep oooooohhh you stopped youre gonna leave me back here at year 9 . How did this happen . It turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. We have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. Lets plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. Prudential. Bring your challenges. Ha gu right now on nbc bay area news, wind whipped fires wreaking havoc in Southern California. And now a new fire is putting crews to the test. The news starts right now. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. Im janelle wang sitting in for jessica aguirre. Im raj mathai. Were on primetime because of nbc bay area. As feared things are getting worse in Southern California. San diego county is now involved. The releaptless wind sweeping through the entire region. Windy conditions this time of year is not unheard of. The difference now, theres no rain. Lets start in ventura county. This is a look now from our nbc chopper in Southern California. Fire fighters are essentially playing defense. Its too dangerous to attack the flames so theyre focused on saving properties and lives. This fire alone, though, in the ventura area has already destroyed more than 425 homes, nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated across Southern California. Now, we mentioned San Diego County. The lilac fire off of interstate 15 near escondido, the city of oceanside and vista. More than 4,000 acres have been scorched. The lilac fire in San Diego County, the libler at this fire in riverside are the two new fires you can see on this map that brings the total to six major fires currently burning down south. Nbc bay areas Jody Hernandez joins us from ojai valley where the largest fire continues to rage. Jodie. Reporter thats right, janelle. The thomas fire has burned 115,000 acres and shows no sign of being contained. Now, we are in the ojai valley where you can see Fire Fighters are waging a fierce fight tonight. The winds have made this fire so unpredictable that Fire Fighters really have no idea when theyll get the upper hand. Were having some really volatile wind conditions, very erratic wind with high velocity gusts. Reporter those strong winds are creating a huge challenge for fires battling the thomas fire. The gusts are literally fanning the flames pushing them towards ranches and homes. The fire front comes, our location, the weather environment. Reporter this cal fire crew is staged near the head of the fire. Protecting a beautiful spanishstyle estate called ojai vista farms. Its known for its tranquil environment, but not today. This was called for an immediate air drop location and thats why you see the response from the air right now. Reporter from the road below residents are nervously watching. Just the uncertainty of it and i feel like, you know, its not predictable. The fire, the wind as much as you theyre forecasting it, just not really knowing. Reporter but emergency alerts are keeping residents on their toes. Last night people in seven counties got the wireless warning. The states largest use of the disaster warning system. People in the danger zone are grateful. Kind of scares me a little bit when i get it, but at least i know that, you know, whats going on. Reporter and we are back here live where you can see the fire fight is on. Now, we are told 15,000 structures remain threatened in this area. 50,000 people have been evacuated. And today the National Weather Service Extended the redflag warning through sunday. That means extreme fire danger through the weekend. Reporting live in ventura county, im Jodi Hernandez, nbc bay area news. Thank you, jodi. Nearly 200,000 across Southern California. Another live shot of the lilac fire burning in San Diego County, one of the newest fires burning and those winds not helping the situation. That redflag warning and those gusty winds continue to fuel these fires. Lets check in with chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. We saw winds 40 to 50 miles per hour. We did have isolated wind gusts. Irvine was one of them reaching 77 miles per hour. So, making it obviously extremely difficult on these fire lines. Want to give you an update on the acreages burned. Creek fire 15,000 acres near san fernando, rye fire 5,000 fires near santa clarita. The thomas fire, the largest at 115,000 acres. We talked about the fire to the north of san diego, lilac fire. Thats already grown to 3,000 acres. So, with all these fires, the key component that Fire Fighters are watching is the wind. There has been a little bit of a change this that wind forecast. Overall its a little bit less gusty for tomorrow out of the east. 20 to 40. Slight break here on saturday, 25 to 35 miles per hour, but it ramps back up on sunday 30 to 45. Were looking now ahead towards monday and tuesday for possibly the largest break in those winds. Ill have a look at our own bay area fire forecast in about 15 minutes. Okay, jeff, well see you soon. The deeper issue here are changing weather patterns. Here is an example of how active the fire season has been this year. This is the cal fire map showing all the fires that they fought last year, 240 of them across the state. This year were going to change the graphic. You see the difference . And we have firsthand experience. 360 fires in all, with more than a third of them happening after september. That includes the north bay fires, one of the most devastating and deadly in the states history. Weve had a lot of support here during our fires. Southern california now needs the support. If you want to help the victims, weve made it easy for you. Just go to our website, nbcbayarea. Com and click the link right there on our home page. Now to some local news. New tonight, youre looking at a Santa Clara County deputy who is under arrest. Blain hopper had an inappropriate relationship with a minor. David trujillo is in san jose with the story. Dave yen, another controversial incident with that jail. Reporter more bad news for the jail system here, janelle. The jail administrators are again having to explain what has happened here with one of their own. Here is the latest on this current incident that police are looking into here at the Santa Clara County jail with a correctional deputy. Tuesday Police Arrested blain hopper. Hopper is a jail guard known as a correctional deputy. Police say they arrested hopper for sending illicit pictures and videos of himself to a 17yearold female victim. Hopper is also accused of soliciting that minor to send him inappropriate content. Investigators say over a fivemonth period, hopper developed a relationship with the victim. Both of them participated in a youth program. Now, this is just the latest in a series of mishaps at the jail system run by the sheriff. Other guards have also been arrested for crimes while on duty. In fact, three were convicted of murdering an inmate. And just last month, two inmates were on the lamb for two weeks after they escaped two weeks while shackled from the palo alto courthouse. In a statement tonight, the sheriff said, quote, no one should be should have to be a victim of sexual coercion or harassment and there is absolutely no tolerance in the Sheriffs Office for anyone who engages in this type of conduct. Sources tell me that hopper has been fired. Nothing has shown, though, that that bad conduct was conducted herein side the jail system so far. Were live in san jose, im damian trujillo, nbc bay area news. Thank you, damian. A gruesome and unexpected discovery near moffatt field. A womans body was found floating in a canal this morning just off the bay trail. Police say a bicyclist saw the body this morning and called 911. The woman was found naked floating face down. Were not that close to the bay where you would have that, you know. Were a little farther in and theres a lot. Levees and all that. So, we dont again, thats part of what were trying to figure out, how the body ended up there, why the body was there. Police are not saying now if they are investigating this death as foul play. The body is being examined by the coroner. Tonight we are getting more details about that explosion in San Francisco two weeks ago. This was the aftermath of that explosion. Touched off by a gas leak. City leaders are now demanding answers from pg e about what caused the leak and where it originated. Nbc bay area sam brock joins us from the site of that leak in Bernal Heights with some troubling revelations. Sam. Reporter raj, good evening. You know we did learn one important tidbit of information tonight. You heard of the bridge to nowhere. This turned out to be the pipeline to nowhere. It was a defunct pg e pipeline that was part of the system, it was so strong it knocked the garage off of this house. Pg e did come out today, they answered questions. They faced the music, but still supervisors and San Francisco residents have their concerns about the culture of safe at pg e. Safety at thpg e. How many of these pipes do you have in the city that might potentially blow up a house . Reporter some quiz cal looks by councilmembers after they could not identify what caused this. Everything is broken. Everything is broken in. Basically there is a giant boom. Reporter a november gas leak in Bernal Heights that displaced several families and could have proven fatal, tonight scrutiny from supervisors about pg e learning about that leak from the San Francisco fire department. Despite the amount of leakage that led to an explosion, that pg e had no system in place to be forewarned that there was a leakage of this size. We have existing notification systems that we leverage into our control center that do feed that information to us and we continue to build on that and make that more sophisticated and install that on our system. Reporter sure. How come it didnt work in this particular instance . In this particular instance, we didnt have that information yet feed ing into our control center so well need to look at that as part of the investigation and the causal valuation. Reporter pg e says it hopes to have more information on what caused the leak in a matter of weeks. Marilyn lives in Bernal Heights and wants answers immediately before the company even thinks about a new Development Project in her neighborhood. Is your concern you might see a repeat of what happened two weeks ago . No, you would see a repeat of what happened in san bruno. Reporter now, marilyn there is concerned about a project slated for upper folsom also in Bernal Heights where they would be building over a steep rock terrain with a transmission line underneath it. Tonight supervisor ronen said that project has been tabled pending Environmental Impact review and she is going to be bringing pg e back in for questioning once they figure out what happened to cause this leak. Reporting live this evening from the 3900 block of Mission Street in San Francisco, sam brock, nbc bay area news. Sam, thank you. Lets go to the south bay. B. A. R. T. Is coming to san jose above the ground and underground. Today several agencies began the long and controversial process of trying to determine just how deep the tunnelling will go and whether it will devastate Small Businesses on the surface. Nbc bay areas robert honda shows us the dispute from both sides and those caught in the middle. Reporter Santa Clara Countys light rail system sometimes goes below street level to avoid disruption, but the planned sixmile bart stretch beneath downtown san jose will mean significant construction on santa clara street. Dee dee harper who runs red rose catering worries how much. I am 100 sure that we are not going to survive if they are going to close the road. Reporter in presentations today, it is clear project partners b. A. R. T. And bta have different plans. B. A. R. T. Wants its familiar twotunnel system, 65 feet deep, each with a single track which it calls safe and dependable. The bta wants one tunnel 85 feet deep with two tracks, a desire mayor sam liccardo said would avoid months and even years of street construction. We saw how devastating it was for b. A. R. T. Construction in downtown San Francisco along Market Street several decades ago, and some would say its taken a couple generations for that part of the downtown to recover. Vta ends up having to deliver this project. At the end of the day, b. A. R. T. Has to operate and maintain it. So, were going through this negotiation of who makes the call. Reporter while there appears to be some optimism that a compromise can be worked out, harper says it is hard for many Downtown Business owners to share that outlook. Im only one person, but city is huge and b. A. R. T. Company is huge. I mean, what about us . Reporter in san jose, robert honda, nbc bay area news. Extremely dry conditions on the Doppler Radar right now. Im tracking our own bay area fire danger thats coming up in about ten minutes. Im scott budman. An east bay man says he owes his life to his dog after a vicious attack and after both spent the night in the hospital. Well have the story just ahead. The verdict in the kate steinle murder trial. Instead of lki tonight marks one week since the verdict in the kate steinle murder trial. Instead of looking back kates parents are looking forward. Next week kate would have turned 35 years old. Her parents telling nbc bay area tonight, they want to honor kates memory in a positive way. Her birthday is next wednesday, december 13th. Among the ways they want to celebrate kates life is helping to raise money through her endowment with the challenged athletes foundation. They want to give a special person a sports wheelchair. It enables people to play basketball, run in races, all sorts of activities. If you want to donate in the name of kate steinle, we mosted a direct lincoln our website nbcbayarea. Com. Get ready for day four, oakland city workers will extend their strike into another day tomorrow. All day employees marched in a picket line outside city hough. Nearly 3,000 nonemergency workers are pushing for higher wages and improved working conditions. The city is offering a 4 raise the first year, but it is the second year raise of 1 to 2 that workers are not happy about. Mayor libby schatz says oakland cannot spend money it does not have. We want to turn things over to our chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. We are talking about our weather and friday is tomorrow. Its getting here. We do have some fairly nice weather setting up here across the bay area, but with our dry weather in place, fire danger also remains elevated here throughout the north bay down to the south bay. Well take a look at the fire burn index, and you can see the key on the left side of the screen, extreme is 162 and above the low is 0 to 37. The bay area will range 48 to 110. That puts us here in a highrisk, especially for the santa cruz mountains, the Oakland Hills and also for the north bay. Keep in mind in los angeles it is at 296. So, extreme fire danger continues down into Southern California. A live look outside now, we have clear skies here across San Francisco. A beautiful shot tonight. Currently we have 53 degrees, just a little bit of haze out there right now. Temperatures dropping into the 40s once we hit early tomorrow morning. Quick look at the extended forecast will show temperatures staying in the mid to upper 60s here across the interior valleys as we head throughout the next seven day forecast, still no storms coming our way. And morning temperatures, well, still going to be on the cold side here as we head through this upcoming weekend all the way into portions of next week. And with those fires burning in Southern California and our own elevated threat, i wanted to focus in on the wind and what we could see here over the next several days. Tomorrow winds out of the east at 5 to 10, will keep that dry offshore wind through this weekend. But not going to be overly gusty and really no big wind event as we head throughout portions of next week as well. So, thats the good news. Well take a look in about 5 to 10 minutes at our own bay area air quality and the link to some of the smoke down in Southern California. Okay, very good. Thanks, jeff. Still to come, electrical issues at the ghost ship warehouse. That and other new details were learning from the criminal court case. Also we continue to track those new developments from the fires in Southern California. A lot of new information at this hour. Well go live to the fire zone next. Sight. And a dire possibility in Southern California. Right now at 9 00, no rain in sight and the dire possibility in Southern California, these devastating fires could be around until christmas. Were live on the fire zones with the newest information. If youre just now joining us, weve been on early because of thursday night football. There are now six major fires burning down south and mandatory evacuations just north of san diego. Yes, those strong gusty winds continue to fuel these blazes. A live look from our chopper, this is the lilac fire where there is some breaking news just coming in. This is the fire burning near escondido. We just learned there are mandatory evacuations just ordered west of the fire in the town of oceanside. Thats a beach town west of escondido, about 100,000 people live in that city. So, mandatory evacuations just ordered. Across Southern California, nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated. The lilac fire which you see here off interstate 15 is one of the newest fire fires. More than 4,000 acres have scorched have been scorched so far and 2000 homes are threatened and mandatory evacuations in oceanside. To see your familys home just gone, just gone, everything that they have is there and its just gone. 23,000 other homes remain threatened at this hour. Governor brown has declared a state of emergency in the counties where these fires are currently burning. Obviously the big issue is in Southern California. But here in northern california, if youve noticed the poor air quality in the bay area, you are not alone. In fact, right outside of our studios, were getting a lot of calls, emails and tweets about the hazy skies here at home. Lets bring in our chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. Jeff, that smoke traveling hundreds of miles here. Yes, id say about 80 of what was in the atmosphere today is just our plain old poor air quality. But there was a little bit of a layer of some smoke moving in from the Southern California fires with a light southerly wind throughout the bay area. High pressure, which is producing the fire danger in Southern California is also right over the bay area. It creates this big lid or cap, if you will, so nothing is really able to stir around. And thats why we had the poor air quality today. Looks like well see poor air quality for tomorrow, but overall we shouldnt see too much in the way of thick smoke continuing over the next couple of days. Its just, again, tomorrow going to be our typical air quality here throughout the bay. Well see the worst and unhealthy air quality throughout the north bay, and for the east bay, peninsula and south bay it will be moderate so you want to limit the outdoor exposure if you suffer from respiratory problems or allergies. Im back with another check in about 15 minutes. Okay, jeff, thank you. Our own Jodi Hernandez is in Southern California. Shes been there all week. Shes tweeting updates and pictures behind the scenes. You can follow her at Jodi Hernandez. Tv. Day two of the ghost ship preliminary hearing, a person who lived in the warehouse took the stand today. Nbc bay areas Christy Smith was in court and has the details. Reporter witness Nicolas Bouchard testified his name was among those on the lease for the ghost ship warehouse in 2013. But he wanted out after a meeting about bringing it up to code where he says the defendant didnt listen. Hes claiming that he tried to get out of that lease because he thought it was what was happening that was dangerous. That there were various codes that werent being complied with. And thats just simply not true. Reporter almena and maximum harris are facetion criminal charges Involuntary Manslaughter creating unsafe conditions before the oakland fire that claimed 36 lives. Today a former casual tenant cried recalling a person who did not survive. She said the warehouse was not intended for humans with ongoing electrical problems, but saw it as a place for community and expression with no one person in charge. She says, no ones in control. This is a group, its a collective. She indicated thats how decisions were made. Reporter hearing the witnesses is difficult for families looking for answers. Its hard for everyone. Were parents. We lost our child so of course its very hard. Reporter the preliminary hearing resumes on monday as a judge works to decide whether there is enough evidence for these defendants to stand trial. In oakland, Christy Smith, nbc bay area news. Christie, thank you. Her family lives in the bay area, but the widow of the Orlando Night Club shooter will stand trial in florida. Bay area native nor salman is charged with providing support to a Terror Organization and obstruction of justice. She is scheduled to go on trial in march. Yesterday a federal judge denied her request to have her trial moved to another city. Salmans husband killed 49 people, injuring at least 68 others when he opened fire inside of the Pulse Night Club in 2016. A followup to that shooting outside the target store in emeryville earlier this week, nbc bay area was first on the scene and weve now learned the name of the suspect. Police say Cameron Smith shot two people monday night. Both victims are still in critical condition. Smith has been charged with two counts of attempted murder. Police have not released a possible motive. And we also know the identity of a body found in a field near Mount Pleasant high school in san jose. Investigators say he was 28yearold andrew ortiz. He had been shot to death. Students made the grim discovery tuesday morning. Ortiz was not a student or employee at Mount Pleasant high. This was san joses 30th homicide of the year. Terrifying moments for a man in the east bay, police say someone pulled a gun on him and demanded that he move his rv in which he was living in. Thats when his dog jumped in to defend him. Nbc bay areas scott budman has the story from san leandro. Reporter the owner of the dog says he is grateful tonight and that he wouldnt be here if it wasnt for her bravery. Thank you. Reporter Jimmy Martinez has a lot to be thankful for. He saved my brother so we have to save her. 123450r and after he was attacked outside the trailer in east oakland this week, his dog is one of them. Hit me in the head with a gun. Reporter martinez was hit then shot in the hand. Then chatta came after the attacker. My dog ran out when he hit me and shot her. She was protecting me. She locks wonderful, you guys. Reporter she was shot in the dog, came here to the san leandro hospital while martinez was taken to the e. R. Both spent the night under doctors care. She is a tough dog. Shes a good dog. Reporter a lifesaving dog. Lifesaving definitely. Reporter martinez and his sister say theyre grateful. If it wasnt for the dog, i wouldnt be here. I literally caught the bullet with my hand. Ill take her. Reporter and she was saved after she saved jimmy first. Thank you, guys. Thank you all. Thank you. Wonderful to her. Reporter the Oakland Police department has confirmed the attack. They tell us they are looking for a suspect tonight and anyone with any information on the incident is asked to contact the p. D. In oakland, scott budman, nbc bay area news. Well, they found the pit bulls, now the search is on for the owner of the two dogs that investigators say killed a chihuahua and attacked a woman in San Francisco. Police released surveillance pictures of the dogs yesterday. They say on november 20th the dogs knocked over a woman walking her dog jowie. And dragged the little dog down the street. It happened in the Outer Mission district. She died at the vets office. Police say they tracked down the pit bulls after media reports last night. They were actually already at a Humane Society in daily city found wandering after another complaint in daily city 245 day. The that same day. The owner has not been located. We want to get back to the Southern California. New mandatory evacuations for the entire city of oceanside. Well continue our coverage next. About 40 miles north of sd. Oceanside. We want to get back to our breaking news. This is our live nbc chopper in San Diego County where youre looking at all those flames down below. East of oceanside, this is inland on interstate 15, and within the last 15 minutes this is now just come in. The entire city of oceanside, which is about 40 miles north of san diego, has been evacuated. Mandatory evacuations, oceanside has about 175,000 people in terms of its population. Its also home to camp pendleton. The entire city has been evacuated. The fear is here this fire, the lilac fire, will spread toward the water where oceanside is. So, thats right in the path. So, entire city of oceanside has been evacuated. Those evacuation orders came down about 15 minutes ago. So, obviously things are perilous now in San Diego County in addition to counties north of the los angeles area. Quite the sight, but it didnt pose any threat to b. A. R. T. A fire burning underneath the tracks in oakland. It happened during a morning commute. This is the view from nbc bay area sky ranger near 6th and Market Streets. Thats next to 880. You can see the flames shooting up beneath the tracks and the trains just rolled along before Fire Fighters put it out. We have learned it was a tent that caught fire at a homeless encampment. The agency says b. A. R. T. Trains continue to operate because the fires did not pose any danger to the cars or track. Fire fighters fighting to save life and property in Southern California. At first he chases the leaping bunny as you can see, and then, you can see his anguish as the rabbit races right into the flames. He patience, he watches and then when hes ready, when the rabbit scrambles back his way, he grabs it, captures it and takes the frightened bunny to safety. Thats Pretty Amazing video with the flames right there. That is remarkable. The bunny is okay. Yes, the bunny is okay. So is the man. So the is man. That happened in ventura county. Jeff ranieri is back. We were talking about oceanside being evacuated. Because of the wind shifting toward the coast. The wind is the same direction. Its so erratic. You get the gusts coming in, it carries embers, they calm down then pick back up again. Were tracking more of the wind coming up on those fires. You can see in oakland right now its mostly clear and 49 degrees. Well hold onto cold 40s into tomorrow morning. Your full microclimate forecast in a few. Also here at 9 00, learning from her successes and failures. Well introduce you to the local olympian trying to make a big comeback after a gruesome injury. The reuben is back for a limited time at subway. So much reuben. [baby crib musical mobile] millions are still exposed to the dangers of secondhand smoke. And some of them cant do anything about it. But you can. Protect your family. Visit tobaccofreeca. Com. Its just my eczema again,t. But its fine. Yeah, its fine. You ok . Eczema. Its fine. Hey hi arent you hot . Eczema again . Its fine. I saw something the other day. Eczema exposed. Your eczema could be something called atopic dermatitis, which can be caused by inflammation under your skin. Maybe you should ask your doctor . Go to eczemaexposed. Com to learn more. The reuben is back for a limited time at subway. So much reuben. The white house is trying to clarify its stance, after could the u. S. Pull out of the up coming Winter Olympics . The white house is trying to clarify its stance after United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said u. S. Participation is an open question because of tensions with north korea. No official decision has been made on that and well keep you guys posted as those decisions are made. Look, i know that the goal is to do so, but that will be a decision made closer to the time. The press secretary tweeted an update, the u. S. Look forward to participating in the olympics and the americans protection is the top priority. This is nittygritty time, the competition to make team usa is heating up in every sport. Yes, the difference between success and failure is razor thin. Ask one snow boarder from lake tahoe. She shows she has experienced both sides of the equation. Reporter elenas family moved from hawaii to lake tahoe when she was six. She was jumping off anything she could find by the age of 2. And now, after something of a setback in her snow boarding career, elena is hoping to jump back into the game. My mom says i was a bit of a piece of work. Yes, i was kind of a dare devil from day one. Reporter dare devil or olympian. Sometimes its hard to tell one from the other. Starting her rotation combos. Reporter or perhaps like elena, it takes one to be the other. Nose grab right there. For me reporter in fact, the 28yearold South Lake Tahoe natives highflying acrobatics has landed her in two winter games. The young american, elena hies. Reporter in 2006 at just 16 years old, elena was the youngest member of the u. S. Team. She is coming into this game with experience. Reporter in 2010 she was back and it looked like her future in the sport was set for years to come. But then, well, then, 2014 rolled around. I didnt make the team in 2014. It was a really tough year for me and, yeah, i dont know. Sometimes things just dont workout the way you expect them to. Reporter after so much success in the sport, elena was forced to face up to failure. It knocked her down, she admits. But not out. Even though i had this huge failure that really was hard on me and kind of felt like it was the end all be all at the time, when i got over it, i realized that i still love snow boarding for all the reasons i loved it in the beginning, and im still so passionate about it and i didnt want to give that up just because i failed once. Reporter so, elena is back, gunning for 2018. Looking back on both the ups and downs in her career, and figuring out how to use both to make her better. If youre paying attention, you learn from both. Reporter not only is the competition stiff to make the team, it goes right down to the wire. Elena says they dont know who will make the u. S. Team until a little more than a week before the winter games begin. Garvin thomas, nbc bay area news. Wow, thats pretty last minute. Good luck to her. Well, for the second time this year our investigation into the misuse of School Officers was just honored with one of broadcast journalisms most prestigious awards. Today we are proud and honored to share this news with you. Investigative reporter sha bat won the dupont award. Nbc bay area just one of five local news stations in the area taking home this prize which comes on the heels of the peabody award we won earlier this year. Our investigation exposed serious issues with the use of Police Officers on School Campuses and found students of color and students with disabilities are disproportionately being arrested at school. Reporting led to major policy changes in the bay area affecting nearly 70,000 students that are proposed state law to outline when officers should and shouldnt get involved on campus. It captured the attention of the Obama Administration which sent a letter to all schools in every country to stop over relying on school Police Officers. We do congratulate our investigative unit. You can watch all of our reporting right on our website, this story specifically. Thats nbcbayarea. Com. We want to go back down to Southern California and give you an update on the newest fire burning down in so cal. This is the lilac fire burning near escondido in San Diego County. Mandatory evacuations just issued in the past half hour for part of oceanside. That is a beach resort town west of escondido, west of the fire. Its the northeast section of the city, but residents there told to get out and get out now. So, these fires still burning out of control. Two more fires added to the list today. Jeff, these winds are not dying down and there is still a redflag warning in effect. The evacuations put into place are due to the fact the wind direction is not going to change over the next five to seven days. Were going to see the winds vary in speed, but its going to be coming from the east and pushing off towards the west right towards oceanside. Its that dry santa ana wind. That is why evacuations are grown. Its grown to 5,000 acres just today alone. Any rain in that area coming that you can see . No, dry. Thats whats going to be really damaging. Yes, along with the wind on top of it. The brush is so dry, theres just no real relief in sight, at least over the next two to three days. Eventually the winds will start to calm down. Lets go ahead and get a look right now and these are some of the top wind gusts. Were hearing from so many of you that have family and friends. We all have some sort of emotional connection down toward Southern California and you want to know whats happening. Well, heres the latest in terms of those wind gusts. A top gust in irvine out of the east at 77 miles per hour. Malibu 70. Ventura 48. Burbank 44. Altadena 43. Most wind gusts were 40 miles per hour. We had isolated gusts popping up into the 70 mile per hour range. We just heard about some of the evacuations in oceanside and it all has to do with that wind forecast. Theres been some new changes to this. Overall we still expect it to stay gusty for tomorrow. Its a little bit less, 20 to 40 miles per hour. But you can see we hang onto these gusty winds on saturday, 20 to 35. Even on sunday now 30 to 45. We likely wont see a break. Its been pushed back a little bit until monday and tuesday winds of about 15 to 25 miles per hour. So, thats why there is still more evacuations in place. We have at least three more tough days ahead to go here in that wind department. Back here in the bay area, we do have elevated fire danger. Its going to be mostly clear for tomorrow, also dry to start. Trivalley at 36. Peninsula a chilly 43. And hazy for the south bay at 40 degrees. For the north bay we begin with the cold 37, San Francisco at 46. Lets take you into the microclimate forecast. And you can see temperatures will be mild, little bit above average, but really not too bad of a day. 71 expected in gilroy, 69 here for san jose. Winds not overly gusty here in the bay. Keep your eye right up here as we head through your microclimate. Its only 5 in the north bay. 66 expected in concord. Over towards hayward, 65 degrees. Peninsula mostly sunny skies from palo alto toward san mateo with 60s. San francisco 66 in the mission. And right through the north bay expecting 65 in novato. The only problem tomorrow if you suffer from respiratory problems or allergies will be the air quality. Spare the air day is in effect with the worst air quality expected in the north bay so you may have to limit your outdoor exposure. Extended forecast in San Francisco, keep 60s for daytime highs through the next seven days. No rainfall. 40s for the morning lows. For the inland valleys, its also dry as we head throughout the next seven days. The good news, no wind event coming out weay at this point. And keep the chillies to 30s to low 40s. We may see a pattern change from the 20th right through about christmas on the 25th that could allow some rainfall. Were going to have to wait and see on that. The next 7 days no help in the rain department. Dry down south as well. Thank you, jeff. He only started one game for the 49ers. Fans are already comparing jimmy to joe montana. Come on. Hear from him next. Thursday night football here on nbc bay area. Wild finish between the saints okay. Did you see the game . Thursday night football right here on nbc bay area, a wild finish between the saints and falcons in that new dome in atlanta. The saints looked like they were going to win this game. But in the last minute, drew brees throws an interception in the end zone. The falcons hold on to beat the saints 2017. So, what about the niners this sunday . Theyre in houston and already theyre comparing jimmy g. And joe cool. Like joe montana and jimmy grap low . Yes. No way. Its only been one game. Heres nbcs colin resch from levi stadium. When you go out there and you make some of the throws he did, people get very excited. Grap aloe, what a grab and another third down conversion. I was looking forward in the years to come you have a play maker back there. Hes going to get it to you, it makes you want to work that much harder for that guy knowing that hes going to lay it on the line for you. In his starting debut as a 49er, jimmy didnt throw a touchdown pass. His team scored just 15 points, but they won. And its the manner in which he played in beating chicago that has coaches, players and fans singing his praises. I think everyone knows the potential and the possibilities, but i mean, its not that you have the temporary, you have to be realistic. Reporter realistic as far as expectations go. Some people already comparing number 10 to number 16. I think ive done a pretty good job of that my whole career, just i try not to listen to any of the outside stuff. The joe montana comparison i think is a little early for those. Its only been one game. [ laughter ] we are both italian, we have that in common. But i think it might be a little early, but we have a good thing going right now. We have to keep working hard and keep improving every week and keep this going in the right direction. You want to be fair to jimmy, too. You said the words joe montana. That was his third nfl game really playing. Thats the goal. And were excited about him and thats the goal. Hopefully some day week get to there, but lets take it one game at at time. Reporter the next game sunday at houston. In santa clara, colin resch, nbc bay area. That makes it fun to watch the niners. Thats a lot of pressure. All right. So, 49ers in houston this weekend. The raiders in kansas city against the chiefs. Oh, and alex smith. And alex. You know all the quarterbacks. I follow a little bit. Thats going to do if for the special edition of our newscast at 9 00. Thanks for joining us. Hope youll join us back here at 11 00. Good night. Were in beautiful hope sound, florida with australia jan golf legend and president s cup champion greg norman. I wanted to prove me right and everybody else wrong because there was a lot of doubt about that we wouldnt be able to do it. Nicknamed the great white shark hes known for his aggressive style and one of the best long drivers in the sports history. He gained a reputation for letting a lead slip away. Norman remains active as ever with his great white shark brand tackling everything from clothing to wine and golf course design. I started to realize i was putting a lot of value and equity in other oples brand. I really didnt get anything out of it. Great, if thats what you want. I didnt want that. We toured the property in florida where norman opens up about the personal costs of