Transcripts For KPIX CBS 20240704

Is up to this year. This is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. Lets begin with the weather story everybody is talking about, the first ever Tropical Storm watch has been issued for Southern California as hurricane hillary makes its march north. It is currently a major category four hurricane and we are already seeing strong wind and rough seas on the coast of mexico and hillary wont keep its strength but it is still threatening to bring a significant amount of rain and flash flooding to Southern California starting sunday. It has a strong potential to affect many californians and disrupt their daily lives. That is pretty unusual for mid august. Some of the inland desert areas could get a years worth of rain in just two days. San Bernardino County is giving out sandbags to residents and staging equipment and warning signs around burn areas where debris flow is possible. Fire crews are preparing for water rescues as creeks and streams get dangerous. Landslides are a major concern, especially in orange county, crews are trying to shore up this hill which is at popular venues for weddings in san clemente where slides have been a recurring problem. And they are also monitoring coastal railways that could be susceptible to both s■lides nd the surging surf. Okay, so the question is, will the remnants of hillary be felt all the way in the bay area . And the forecast is changing by the day. Chief meteorologist, paul heggen is keeping an eye on the potential impact. Whether it is a Tropical Storm or hurricane approaching california, that is unusual to say the least, it is a major hurricane now, it is going to lose strength over the next few days. For the moment, it has 130mileperhour sustained wind, making it a category four. That is only based on the wind speed. The wind is going to relax at the storm encounters cooler weather, that is the color in the background indicating the sea surface temperatures, barely a hurricane, 75mileperhour sustained wind by sunday morning. When the center of circulation is still off the coast of the baja peninsula. The Actual Center of circulation doesnt move into Southern California likely as a Tropical Storm for the first time in 84 years, that is going to happen by about midday on saturday. And it will continue to weaken further and become posttropical through sunday night and into monday. We are looking at a Tropical Storm watch for the First Time Ever in Southern California, it does include los angeles and san diego and palm springs. The wind is going to be around 20 to 40mileperhour, and that is Strong Enough to bring down power lines and result in outages. The flooding concerns are going to be the primary issue with all of the moisture. The flood watch is already in effect, up to six inches of rain possible especially in the deserts, that represents two or three years worth of rainfall in the space of 24 to 48 hours. But, all of these impacts for Southern California, we are not really going to have any direct impact from it, but itll eventually be Tropical Storm hillary in the bay area, just a noticeable increase in humidity by sunday night and monday. The chance of a couple of showers but a low probability of light showers. All eyes on Southern California, we have family and friends down there. Thank you. We do have a look back at the last time a Tropical Storm hit california, 84 years ago in september of 1939, a storm dumped 11 inches of rain with wind up to 65 miles per hour. Beach communities flooded, the storm destroyed boats and washed away homes from Huntington Beach to malibu. The l. A. River spilled the banks and downtown was over three feet of water. 93 people were killed. President biden said his administration is keeping a close eye on hillock hillarys movements. Also in sacramento, cal oes said it has learned valuable lessons from all of the atmospheric rivers last winter, they are ready to send swift water rescue teams as well as equipment to Southern California. The coast guard is also ready to respond for rescues in ocean or inland waterways or channels. But, it is better to avoid a rescue, so emergency alerts will be critical. During a time like this, our search and rescue capabilities will be great as the storm worsens. In the meantime, caltrans crews are working 24 hours. California is preparing for the impacts of a Tropical Storm, there is still a major Disaster Response underway in mali. Officials say a little more than half of the disaster area from last weeks fires has been searched and the death toll still stands at 111. It is expected to climb. For many residents, the trauma is just starting to sink in. A lot of us havent even had time to breathe, we are just slowly getting out of survivor mode. The head of the Emergency Management agency resigned yesterday citing Health Reasons and it comes a day after he defended the decision not to activate the warning sirens as the fire swept toward the area. The mayor plans to name a replacement soon. We have some exclusive information on a plan to bring new life to a neighborhood. Sitting empty on the edge of concord, we told you how developers across the bay area are increasingly taking advantage e law to fasttrack new housing. Now we have learned the socalled builders remedy could be used to push through a project at the site of a former military housing. That has been sitting empty since 2014. They can do this because concord is not compliant with state demands for new housing. The project could bring nearly 300 homes, some affordable to the site, not far from the North Concord bart station. Wilson walker got a tour of the site and has more on why the developer wants to bypass the city on this. Reporter this is a single property, about 59 1 2 acres, two different villages containing existing former military housing. This used to be officer housing for the navy and for the coast guard. Two villages, 286 units that could house as many as 900 people here on the very edge of concord. 20 of these units, 58 units, 20 in each village would be affordable. Reporter but, the developers who purchased this property at a federal auction in 2021, since then they have developed something of a disagreement over what to do with the city , they said they would like to see plans for something larger with the construction of high density housing. The Developers Say that is all on the table but they would also like to make use of the existing housing in the nearterm. Well, enter the builders remedy. With the builders remedy, we can obtain permits within the next 60 days. Without it, the project is subject to openended discretionary approvals, public hearings, public process, all of the time and uncertainty. Reporter the application isnt just a way to push the city on this, it might be a first of its kind use of the tool. And in every other context, it is used to develop new housing that doesnt presently exist. In this case, the builders remedy would allow the reoccupancy of these units. Definitely the quickest potential to the project, and in a way, the least radical. I mean, the buildings are already there. Reporter sure, she would like to see new housing on a grand scale, even, but then there is the element of time. You know, maybe it would only take five years, but based on my experience, these kinds of things can take a decade or more. So, it is important to have housing now. Reporter something that should absolutely happen and can happen with cooperation with the law and desire to work with us. These are not mutually exclusive. We reached out to several offices in the city of concord today and we have not heard back yet. They are still trying to figure out what to do with the 5000 acres just beyond these homes, but talking to the land owners of this property, they say to get the Building Permit in the next 60 days, they can start work and maybe have People Living in these homes again as soon as spring of next year. We have seen this playing out across the bay area, in the willow glen neighborhood, a developer is trying to use the builders remedy to turn the san jose swim and racquet club into 85 luxury condos. The City Planning Department refused to change the zoning law to allow the project to move forward. In menlo park, there is a fight over the former headquarters of sunset magazine. A developer could use the tool to build more than 1100 apartments, a hotel, and office space. So you can expect a lot of Court Battles to come out of this. The man accused of shooting a San Jose Police officer in an ambush is facing life in prison. 44yearold, Gabriel Carreras appeared in court for the first time this afternoon. Prosecutors say he is facing a charge of attempted murder of a Police Officer and several firearm assault charges. Police say he ambushed the officer as she was responding to a Domestic Violence call. It led to a four hour standoff before he was eventually taken into custody. Prosecutors revealed today that the officer was shot and the bullet fractured her spine. Her partner pulled her to safety, she is still in critical but stable condition. We have breaking news on the two backtoback crashes involving cruise robotaxis, the d. A. Announced, they asked the company to reduce its fleet by half until this investigation is complete. One of the crashes involved a fire truck responding to a call. The second crash was caught on camera in the mission. The vehicle had a green light when it entered the intersection of 26th street and mission just after midnight when the Dodge Charger plowed into it, the car detected the charger before the impact and brakes, but they still collided. The dodge was completely totaled. I mean, it was just wiped. Theres fluid leaking everywhere, airbags were deployed and it was scary. Fortunately the person was okay and no injuries. The human operated vehicle had likely run the red light resulting in the collision, so in this case, the Autonomous Vehicle did not appear to be at fault. Police think another cruise was at fault with the collision with the fire engine just two hours before, the truck was responding to emergency and collided with the taxi and they said the cruise had the green light but given the situation, should have yielded. The passenger was taken to the hospital with nonlifethreatening injuries. We got a statement from the dmv saying cruise has agreed to halt their active fleet by 50 until the investigation is complete, no more than 50 Driverless Cars in operation during the day and 150 at night. Just yesterday, city leaders asked state regulators to halt the recently approved expansion of robotaxis. They say self driving cars still have a lot of technical bugs that arent ready for prime time. You may recall the mess in north beach after outside lands where cruise cars were stuck because of a connectivity issue. Another got stuck in what was wet concrete just this week. Imagine seeing this in your backyard. The Mountain Lion siding that has the entire neighborhood on alert tonight. His rapping have students hitting pretty excited about algebra, wait until you see what this celebrity math teacher has and plan for visit t your local vovolvo reretailer, to expererience a vovolvo fully elelectric vehicle during the summer safely savings event. Imagine running into this in your yard, a san mateo neighborhood is on alert after a Mountain Lion was spotted in the backyard of the home, in the area of vanessa drive near south grant street. Police advised residents to stay inside. Local schools were told to shelter in place and they did a complete search of the neighborhood making sure the big cat was no longer roaming around. Firefighters do heroic things all the time, even when it has nothing to do with fighting fires. The San Jose Fire Department gave away hundreds of free backpacks today at John Montgomery elementary in East San Jose with a lot of families unable to afford school supplies, they say they are trying to bridge the gap. It green brings us great joy to see the impact these backpacks are having on the kids. They also see the fire engine here and the firefighters give them stickers, fire helmets, this is a great event. The department collected funds themselves and they were able to buy over 500 backpacks for the event. Check this out, this is an east bay teacher, he has found a way to make math fun for students, do you remember this story last year . Since then, he has become a local celebrity, truly. He is using his rap and rhymes to bring math alive. Its his sixth year of teaching here. But, now he is taking math to another level for students to watch at home. What is really nice, parents also use these tutorials to help, too. Reporter here is his latest release, he decided it was time to get his students to start paying attention. He is going onto year two of taking math to a new level. You are onto something, right . This past year, i was able to make a whole mixed tape about algebra, just trying to make songs that talk to kids exactly about what they are supposed to be learning in math. So, phones and music are allowed in the classroom and it seems to be working. Are you learning the functions . Of course, im learning the functions. Reporter angelica says she is also learning something else. It makes it a lot of fun, i didnt think math could be fun, the way he puts it all together, its definitely fun. Reporter mr. Roscoe graduated from this very high school, he said he is a proud graduate and even prouder of his students now. Im hoping that its in their brain on repeat, and they can pass the test. And making these raps has been a labor of love, he also learned a lot of the words rhymed. Im working on a song called angles, im working on a new song every month this year. Reporter some students even say there math teacher is a star. Pretty catchy, and it is working. When you walk around town, are you known as the math magician . I was at costco the other day, and they were like, are you the rapping math teacher . That is big time when you are recognized at costco. Mr. Roscoe is also working on some topsecret mathematical sports equations, he says it is certain to help the 49ers make it to the super bowl. So, stay tuned. Still ahead, a church could lets get to know whether, we have a lot to cover and im fascinated when you look at the trajectory of hillary, and where she is heading right now, so she is along the coast of combo . Around the southwestern tip, it is going to graze around that and head over to Southern California, just unusual situation. It is a Strong Enough storm but moves fast enough that it doesnt lose all its strength before it makes its way into california. Its going to go pretty much in a straight line, straight north. Given this timeframe, we have a good idea. It can still wobble a little bit. With hilary at the bottom of the screen, this was eugene a couple of weeks ago, it has been cut off from the main flow of the atmosphere, it has been wandering around the pacific for the past 10 to 12 days, but it is going to have an impact on where hilary goes, eventually these features are going to merge but is not likely just crashes into the other, they flow together like picture two ponds of water being funneled downstream, they will emerge once they are a little bit farther downstream. That is going to happen away from us which carries the influence away from the bay area. You can see the concentration of moisture in the atmosphere, there is the hurricane tomorrow evening, and i will surge up into Southern California saturday night and sunday, watch how it gets diluted as it tracks further to the north, not nearly as bright on these futurecast colors, indicating that we are going to feel the increase of humidity. We will see more clouds overhead, enough fuel for some pop up showers on monday, but that is the impact we are going to feel around the bay area. Southern california is going to bear the brunt of this system. Some pop up showers around us today, mainly in the mountains of Northern California and the high sierra, that is where the bulk of the activity will be concentrated once again tomorrow. The fog will be spreading tonight and backing up to the coast by midday. Pop up showers in the usual locations on saturday but by tomorrow afternoon and evening, the first waves of moisture are going to be moving into Southern California already and bands of heavy rain are going to be moving in throughout the day on sunday. Some of the heaviest rain is going to be falling inland in the desert locations, where the landscape isnt capable of absorbing nearly that amount of rain, that significantly heightens the flash flooding threat, mudslides are going to be a concern and theres enough wind energy with this decaying tropical system that Power Outages are going to be a threat as well. The moisture will lift up to the north, avoiding the bay area, just enough for that chance of pop up showers on monday , but it is a 10 to 20 chance. Outside right now, temperatures mostly in the 70s. We will drop down to a mixup of 50s and 60s. We will lighten things up for tomorrow, for the dog walking forecast. Tomorrow looks like a pretty good day in santa rosa, temperatures reaching the low 80s. Itll be warm inland but not excessively hot over the weekend and the increase of tropical moisture late sunday and monday. 70s around the bay tomorrow, mix of 80s and 90s farther inland, no huge changes to the temperatures for the next several days. Staying in the 70s for the most part in San Francisco and oakland. And again, a chance for a couple pop up showers and thunderstorms, we will have to watch that carefully. The hottest spots in the east bay. And the humidity will be noticeable. Thank you. Have you if you happen to be househunting, you might want to consider life in a church, a former church in marin is on sale, the wooden structure on belvedere was built in 1951 with a nautical theme in mind, the sellers think the 3500 square foot space could be converted into a home, they havent posted an asking price yet. Thanks james tonight, hurricane hilary barreling toward the west coast, leading officials to declare the firstever Tropical Storm watch for Southern California. Here are tonights headlines. Flood watches