Good afternoon. Im audrey asistio. Welcome to nbc bay area news at 4 30. Our ian cull is at the airport tracking how the fires in hawaii are changing travel plans here in the bay area. Were also tracking other stories on this wednesday, including another health scare for senator Dianne Feinstein. The fall she took at her San Francisco home and what it means for her future on capitol. Also, a popular pizzalace in the brea is hit by vandalor a second time. The frustration growing with crime in the neighborhood. And it is easy for all of us to see. Now there are new numbers to back it up. Scott budman will join us to talk about San Franciscos slow recovery from the pandemic. Lets go ahead and begin with that devastating scene in hawaii. Take a look at this. Raging wildfires on the island of maui. Theyve killed at least six people, forced thousands of others to evacuate. You can see here, this is the historic hawaiian town of lahaina. Flames destroying a popular shopping area. Let me show you where the flames are burning, on three different spots on the island of maui. The west side is where lahaina is. There are two more fire zones south of the airport. Search and rescue operations are under way as Officials Say some people are unaccounted for. At least 14 people had to be rescued after jumping into the ocean to escape those flames. Officials fear hundreds of homes have been destroyed. The windwhipped fires are being fueled by powerful winds from Hurricane Dora, and many on the island hive been left without power or cell service. Flights into maui have been canceled, and today the acting governor issued a proclamation urging visitors to stay away as tourists are rushing to get off the island. Its not only for the visitors. Local people have lost everything. Theyve lost their house, theyve lost their animals, and its devastating. Even as of this morning, planes were landing with tourists. This is not a safe place to be. Ian cull live at sjc, we heard theyre saying maui is not a safe place to be right now. Theyre telling everyone to just not come. Reporter yeah, it seems like from what were hearing, a lot of people are hearing that advice and canceling their trips on their own, whether their flights were canceled or not. You can tell from those images and the information that is coming out of maui overnight and all day today, were just getting a much clearer picture of how devastating these wildfires have been. Much of the famed lahaina area appears to have burned down. One picture reads, pray for howie. Shows what it looked like before and after todays fires. One Airline Agent told me most people canceled their flights outright after hearing their hotels would not have power, if travelers could even get to them. We spoke with passengers trying to make that decision earlier. Pretty bad wildfires all over the place. Were trying to figure out if its safe to go there and what the experience is. Its minor compared to what the people there are going through. Were just canceling vacation. Were canceling. One of our sons has a medical condition and we dont want to be stuck there with wildfires. We heard some travelers are canceling their flights, but are flights even heading to maui at this point . Do they need to cancel, and are flights from maui heading back to the bay area . Whats the latest . Reporter we know at sjc, two flights this afternoon did depart to maui. But many other flights along the west coast were seeing now checking the maui airports website, they have been canceled. There are flights coming in because they need airlines to come in and help take passengers out. But american airlines, for example, today announced that it would be canceling all flights to that island. It comes after nearly 2,000 people had to shelter at the maui airport overnight. Hawaii Officials Say the airlines are sending Additional Support to help people get off the island. Clint hansen lives in maui and spoke with msnbc earlier today about what hes seen there. With these winds, it whipped up real fast. People didnt have time. We dont have the numbers, but i think complete families are gone now. People are running to the ocean to escape, jumping into it, getting rescued by the coast guard. Reporter back here in the bay, we do know there is a flight coming in from maui by way of honolulu. It arrives here in about 15 minutes. We spoke to speak with passengers and hear from them. Well have an update live at 5 30. See you then, ian. Definitely devastating to see all of that. The major concern with this fire is hurricane ahurricane fanning those flames. Chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking conditions on the fire lines and will join us with an update at 5 00. Back in our area, 35 people are now without a home after fastmoving flames tore through an Apartment Building in San Francisco. The fire started around 8 30 last night near eighth avenue and irving in the inner sunset, burned through a hardware store, a shed, and the apartments. Firefighters were there into the Early Morning hours to make sure nothing flared up. Thankfully, everyone did make it out safely. The red cross is helping those who were displaced. Senator Dianne Feinstein is back in her San Francisco home after suffering a fall that triggered a precautionary trip to the hospital yesterday. Its the latest incident to fuel debate over both her health and her ability to finish her term in the senate. The senators Team Released a short statement confirming that she did fall, was taken to a local hospital as a precaution. It went on to say all her scans checked out, and she was quickly released. This all comes as newly filed Court Documents show that feinsteins daughter, katherine, has been given power of attorney over some of her mothers affairs. The senator missed nearly three months on capitol hill earlier this year while she battled shingles and other ailments. The incident and other reports have triggered calls for feinstein to resign. The last incident came less than two weeks ago when the senator appeared confused, launched into a speech during a Procedural Committee vote. It funds priorities okay, just all right. Fellow bay area congressman ro khanna is among those who previously called for the senator to resign, but if when we asked for comment today his office said he wished her a speedy recovery reserve. A berkeley Business Owners pizza shop was hit by vandals. The culprit left an expensive mess behind. This happened on shattuck avenue. The owner of emilios woke up to police at his home, there to tell him someone smashed in the front window of his business. This is the second time his pizzeria has been vandalized in two years. Hes wondering if being a berkeley Business Owner is even worth it. For the first ten years, the only thing that happened is i got my tip jar stolen a couple of times. The last couple of years, the previous incidents were minor. This one, my neighbor got her window smashed maybe a year ago. Same building. So its definitely been worse in the last few years. Every time his window is broken, he says it costs him 1,000, which is the cost of his insurance deductible. He says he then has to factor in the potential Insurance Premium increases. Right now, making in the bay new numbers are showing how San Francisco is struggling to recover from the pandemic. Were talking about population and cell phone records. Scott budman what are we looking at . The numbers are not great for downtown San Francisco. The organization to look at it for the latest time, the moodys afternoon, they look at big financial numbers for the country. Theyve zeroed in on some of the countrys bigger cities, ala San Francisco, new york. They say these cities, especially San Francisco, really are slow to recover postpandemic. Among the problems, population down. Thats no good. And also, cell phone traffic. A really interesting metric. They lodged twothirds of cell phone traffic. Think about what you do with a cell phone. Make plans to meet friends, reservations, hotels, you look up all that stuff. All that is down, which shows theres just not a whole lot of activity. Weve seen some of these malls and individual businesses and stores pull out of downtown San Francisco. Its been really rough. But moodys says, and they used the phrase rock bottom. In the business world, like in our personal lives, sometimes thats what you have to do before you start coming back, and indeed they say theyre starting to see some positive signs. You could only go up from rock bottom. I know you spoke with the San Francisco chamber of commerce . They say similar things. Yeah, we know we have to start thinking differently about what to put downtown. The whole tech boom is stalling for San Francisco right now. And a lot of the malls that have nothing to do with tech, but rather nordstroms, whole foods, theyre pulling out too. What do they do . Theyre trying to find new things to do, and theyre seeing some successes. Even cited by moodys a lot of people are going to bars, restaurants downtown. Young people might actually save San Francisco in sort of the opposite way we usually think. We think it starts with business, then those workers make money and they go buy drinks and dinner, et cetera. Turns out people are starting by going on dates, getting dinner, drinks. They think that will lead to more activity and shopping and working downtown. Opposite what was we think, but San Francisco is a cultural city than a financial city. I see a lot of people in bars and restaurants in the city recently. You talked about ikea and the a. I. Companies as well. Right, exactly. Who shops at ikea . Young people. Who works at a. I. Companies . Young people. Were starting to see some growth back downtown again. Thats why they say maybe were a little past rock bottom, starting to go up. As long as we dont stay there, were good. Tight on funding as students head back to school. Teachers across the bay area are dealing with shrinking budgets. How you can help them and help yourself at tax time. Plus get used to more summers like this one. Really hot across the u. S. Our Cinthia Pimentel is digging into a new report from noaa and why things are likely to get hotter. Oh ms. Flores, what would we do without you . Leader of f many, and pepet wranglerer too. Oh ms. Flores, what would we do without you . You u report to o your b, every afafternoon. Oh ms. Flores, what would we do without you . So beautififul. Soso becoming g a student t an might t seem imposossible. So beautififul. Hello,o, mi amor. But whwhat if a scschool could bebe there foror all of . Career, family, finances a and mental l heal. But whwhat if a scschool could bebe there foror all of . Well, itit can. Natitional univeversity. Supportingng the wholele yo. No break for millions of people in the south when it comes to the weather. Theyre dealing with excessive heat following an outbreak of storms earlier this week. This as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the u. S. Has suffered more billiondollar disastersfar this year than any other year since they started tracking them back in 1980. Our Cinthia Pimentel joins us. The effects of Climate Change are really piling up this year . Yeah, they really are ramping up. Researchers say that we are starting to see the climate system finally catch up to some of the changes from the last couple of years. So what theyre saying is that this summer and really this year, if you think about it as a whole, could be a sneak peek of future seasons and where we begin to see more of these extremes. Lets start with the scorching and recordbreaking temperatures over the last couple of weeks. These have been amplified by el nino, which is a natural cycle of warmer waters in the pacific. But el nino is just revealing the warmup thats been building over the last couple of years. Early decades. As we take a look at this year so far, we cant forget about our record flooding at the beginning of the year. Weve gone through the rest of the year into the summer, now heading into midaugust, noaa researchers have counted 40 billion in damage disasters, making it a record for this point in the year. Some of these Severe Weather systems have been clustered in the central u. S. , but many parts of the country are seeing a range of disasters. The ocean warming is the part that really concerns me, especially in regions like south florida where the temperatures in the ocean also impact the temperatures over land. And the reality is, thats not going back down. S extreme ocean temper have tropical casterscerned a we approach the peak of hurricane season. Noaa will release an updated forecast for the season tomorrow. Ill be here to bring us the latest as we navigate the rest of the summer and 2023. But for now, back to you. We know youre staying on top of it, thanks so much. Back to school, making it in the bay takes on a new meaning this time of year. Its not just parents who think about the cost of school supplies. Teachers are getting creative and stretching their own dollars to fill cabinets and cubbyholes. Reporter it is back to school for the Mountain View school district. When kids come home today, they may have a supply list from the school, but they may also have a link to their own teachers wish list as teachers try to fill supply closets without digging deep into their own pocket. When you look around your childs classroom, you wont be able to tell which supplies and materials were paid for by their teacher, but according to the National Education association, more than 90 of teachers say they spend about 500 of their own money every year. What they buy supplements what they get from their School Districts and thats why more teachers than ever use social media to put out their Amazon Wish Lists and crowdsourcing requests to their students families and often to their own families and friends. Bill hotter is teaching transitional kindergarten for the first time in a 28year career. Because its a new class, his budget is 1,000, a far cry from the 200 he usually gets. His wish list is posted to facebook, and hes hoping the Pleasant Hill pta will pull through like they usually do. Im very lucky to have the pta that i do. They will eventually take care of me. I think like all of my wooden puzzles im asking for will eventually be in miss classroom. Reporter Sarah Huckabee started keeping kindergarten in san jose during the pandemic. Her online wish list supplemented what she got from the Evergreen School district. I got a ton of donations from both the parents and my friends and family through facebook. So really, that Amazon Wish List totally ended up supplying almost everything in my classroom. If social media didnt exist, theres no way i would have gotten so many donations. Reporter teachers in some districts dont get their own specific classroom budgets, but they do get to choose from the stock of supplies. At San Franciscos Tenderloin Community school, many teachers create wish lists through donors choose which allows anyone to donate supplies to classrooms. The teachers help out too. At tenderloin, theres a strong community. A lot of it is sort of teachers passing on stuff, helping each other out. Reporter come tax time, teachers can only write off 300 worth of expenses. Parents, we can donate as much as we want and get a tax writeup, as long as those supplies are for everyone in the class, not just for our particular children. Garvin thomas is working on the 5 00 news . Theres a term we use in the news business. When theres something happening that has a big impact in our lives, if you have kids of a certain age, School Season calling, thats personal front page. Mine go back to school tomorrow, but about a dozen districts around the bay area went back today. We talked about school supplies. Kris sanchez talked about that. Were curious about enrollment. It dropped during the pandemic, has it recovered . And Marianne Favro has the latest on a saratoga teen missing for more than a month. Santa clara county Sheriffs Office says they just discovered her car earlier this week. Welli tell you where and what direction the search is headed. Thank you, garvin. There is a major change coming to your iphone. Even if you dont get a new one. Well tell you whats on the way to how you answer and hang up calls. Mrve. This might take time to get used to. Apple set to release its ios 17 software update, it could include changes to the hangup button. In the beta version, the button moved to the lower righthand sidecorner instead of centers in the bottom of the screen. Some people who are already testing this out say its going to take time to retrain their muscle memory. Apple hasnt confirmed whether the hangup button will officially be moved, so well wait and see next month. Big changes are coming for disney plus. Disney announced today that its going to start cracking down on passwordsharing. Thats expected to begin next year. Disney also plans to hike prices for its streaming platform this fall. Users can expect to pay 14 a month starting october 12th. Customers can still stick with the cheaper plan at 8 a month, but theyll have to deal with ads. This is a dream come true for a karate kid in new york thanks to the original on karate kid. 13yearold armond mohammad came face to face with his bigscreen hero, actor ralph macchio. Mohammad was a rising karate star when his severe scoliosis forced him out of the dojo. Thankfully, a successful Spine Surgery enabled him to return to his passion, and his determination caught the attention of the famous actor who surprised him last night at citi field. Mohammad also got to throw out the honorary first pitch at the mets game against the cubs. Thats wonderful to see. Pretty decent today, i cant complain with 80s. Weve gone from a very warm weekend to seeing temperatures kind of cool off, guiding us as we go through our workweek. Lets take a look at livermore. Well do 84 out there in the trivalley and around the bay area, temperatures are beautiful as we enjoy 80 in downtown san jose. We head to the coast. We see our microclimates in full action with 64 over San Francisco and that dense fog definitely impacting the visibility with the wind out of the west. Well keep an eye on whats happening over hawaii as we see Hurricane Dora continue to move on and push on west with those winds definitely impacting the flames. The good news is those winds should start to die down as we go into tomorrow and the next couple of days. As far as us here in the bay area, were also seeing influence from the tropics. We could see most of that Activity Still hanging on over the south and east of us, but well see some more high clouds push through tomorrow. Of course, starting the day with that coastal drizzle and fog. Thursday and friday, these temperatures and the conditions outside could start to feel a little bit more muggy. Well track some of that activity that continues to push on through later on in the day thursday, friday, over the sierra. Well keep our radar up, see if any storms decide to come into the bay, any of those rogue storms, and create some of that unsettled weather. The sevenday forecast over San Francisco, well keep temperatures in the 60s. Not seeing much of that warmth return into the city or inland valleys until next week. In the meantime, were going to keep tracking that monsoon mois tour thats moving in through parts of the state. More of our forecast coming up with my partner, jeff in a couple of minutes. Thank you for joining us. Jess and garvin are working on the 5 00 newscast next. Recovering from a fall. Senator feinstein is back home after she tripped and fell in her San Francisco home. How shes doing following recent Health Issues. Tragic news from hawaii. Fastmoving wildfires have turned deadly as they continue to level iconic parts of maui. We have Team Coverage throughout the newscast. It is back to school for many bay area kids today. How School Districts are dealing with declining enrollment, and will it improve . The news at 5 00 starts right now. Thank you for joining us. Im garvin thomas. Im jessica aguirre. Senator Dianne Feinstein and that fall in her Pacific Heights home that sent the 90yearold to the hospital. Feinstein is back home tonight. The fall is the latest in a series of Health Issues raising concerns about the california senators health and her ability to finish her current term in office. Heres nbc bay areas Sergio Quintana in San Francisco. Reporter according to a brief statement from senator Dianne Feinsteins communications team, she fell in her home and was taken to the hospital as a precaution. It says all her scans checked out, and she was released. Senator feinstein is at home in San Francisco because congress is currently out of session, but this fall is just the latest incident in a series of concerns for the 90yearold senators health. It comes as newly filed documents in San Francisco superior court reveal feinsteins daughter has been given power of attorney over some of her 90yearold mothers affairs. A court filing in part, katherine feinstein, petitioner, duly appointed by senator feinstein as her attorney under a limited power of attorney. In the context of whats happened to the senator over the last couple of years, it is a big deal. 90 years old. Shes exhibited in the last few months a great deal of fragility. Reporter feinstein missed nearly three months in Congress Early they are year because of a case of shingles and other ailments. After returning appeared to not know she had been gone. Then less than two weeks ago, the senator appeared to get confused as she launched into a speech during a procedural vote at an Appropriations Committee meeting. It funds priorities submitted y,