Weve already seen plenty of drama tonight. The competition just started and unfortunately it did not go well for team usa in the new figure skating team event. In the mens short event, Jeremy Abbott crashed hard and slid right into the boards. Im so proud to be on this team and to be part of this inaugural event. I love every Single Person thats on my team. Theyre really like family. So i feel torn apart that i let them down. Team usas pairs team also struggled. They are basically eliminated from gold medal contention. And slope style, you just saw the men and womens snowboarders compete. And the Northern California athletes did really well. Jamie anderson finished second in the qualifiers. And carly shore finished fourth. That allows them to skip the semifinals and go directly to the finals on sunday. For the men, no u. S. Rider advanced directly, but chaz goldemonld was the closest. This is the event shaun white dropped out of. As for today, no competition, just gearing up for the opening ceremony. So the political and social subplots continue to generate headlines. The biggest headline tonight is from google. The Google Doodle seen by millions across the world. This is what the home page looked like tonight, an illustration against russias antigay laws. President obama is also delivering a message by sending a delegation of gay olympians. You know, at first i sort of scratched my head and then i looked at it as an opportunity, because the platform is so huge. Its literally our president sending a message of tolerance and diversity to another country. The 50yearold San Francisco resident recently came out about his open sexuality only after president obama named him to that delegation. Now, he is on the world stage yet again. Now maybe the next bay area gold medalist, paulina edmonds. She will soon be on the ice, but tonight it was about team skating. Tonight for the first time it was the ice wars. With ten countries battling it out for gold. Cheryl hurd is live in san jose with kind of the take on this new event. Cheryl . Reporter thats right. Im live here at shark ice in san jose. The home of paulina edmonds. If you didnt know she was a hometown girl, you would know it when you saw this poster with all the signatures wishing her well. She will not be part of the team event, but one skater thinks its a great idea. Its such a big individual sport. Its nice to have that team feeling. Reporter a feeling she says figure skaters have, but its nice to know that the Olympic Games is recognizing that feeling. We all cheer each other on as if we were a team. Reporter the International OlympicCommittee Members must have felt that way when they decided to add Team Figure Skating to the 2014 sochi games. I think its a great thing. Reporter jonathan says, only ten countries earned the right to compete at the event, based on how their skaters finished at last years world figure skating championships and other events. Great britain, which is where im from originally, they sent a full team, and some of those team members wont get to represent Great Britain in the individual events because they didnt quite reach the qualifying score, but they still get to be part of the Olympic Games. Reporter which means figure skaters can come awhich with more than one medal. Susan says thats the way it should be on the olympic stage or at the local rink. Were all friends, of course were going to cheer each other on. Reporter nbc bay area is sponsoring a watch party here tomorrow night. Rob mayeda will be the emcee, and it starts at 5 00. If you want to be a polina fight, you can buy this for 2. All the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society for kids. Reporting live in san jose, im cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. Thank you, cheryl. Stay up to date with whats happening in sochi by signing up for our olympic newsletter. Just go to nbcbayarea. Com. Lets get to the rain. Big weather is brewing, as we dry out for some of the strongest rain weve seen in months and a stronger storm is moving in. We begin with chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. Jeff, what are we in for tomorrow and the weekend . Heavy rainfall coming our way. That next storm system lining up on the satellite loop. What i want to take you to next is not something we show you often. You see this area of yellow . That is some intense moisture coming from hawaii, subtropical moisture. Once we get a small piece of this, its going to amplify our storm systems by this weekend and boost our rainfall totals. So lets take you to the future cast. Tomorrow morning, getting up, 6 00 a. M. , well have cloud cover and areas of drizzle. We wont start to see areas of rainfall begin to measure up until we head into early friday amp, beginning in the north bay and then again transitioning off to the south. This will be the beginning of a lot of wet weather through sunday at the upcoming weekend. Well have the timing coming up. When all is said and done, by sunday, this will likely be some of the wettest weather we have seen since december of 2012. Well have details on some major snow later on. Rain today means water tomorrow. Jean elle continues our coverage from San Francisco and jeep, its really kind of collected the old fashion way. Reporter the San FranciscoPublic Utilities commission is asking millions to conserve water and sit doing the same, collecting thousands of gallons of rainwater from the roof of its new building. So it doesnt have to water the plants with drinking water. Even just the rains last week, we filled it pretty much all the way. Reporter even in drought conditions, a little bit of rain has the new Public Utilities commission brimming with water. Drains on the roof send rain to a storage tank. We capture rain water and move it down to our 25,000 gallon sistern and use it to water our landscaping. Reporter the program is catching on. The Randall Museum is tapping into the valuable resource, and 13 buildings under construction in San Francisco are including water correction systems. Its rain water and we use it to water the garden. Reporter he says there are 50 gallon rain barrels at his school. Right now im building a house. When im done in the land scaping, im going to look into it. Reporter some cities offer incentives for people to collect rainwater. Here in San Francisco, the puc is looking to bring back a discount on rain barrels. Jean elle, nbc bay area news. I was supposed to go to florida, then hong kong. Sending pets to the wrong country. Allegations of pets being mistreated in the care of airlines. Former pet handlers speak out. A bay area woman gets an offensive piece of mail from a major bank. The bizarre insult that came along with the credit card offer. And well show you the special perks set up in sochi for their biggest fans. Imagine it sounds horrific, dogs and cats dehydrated, left in the sun or sent to the wrong city. Tonight, two former pet handlers are confirming what we up covered, that animals in some cases are being mistreated. Strong allegations here. Reporter the former pet handlers say they saw it firsthand. Animals being left out in the heat, pets mishandled, even accidently shipped to the wrong country. All in the care of airlines. People are being misled. Reporter they worked in cargo at one of the countrys largest airports. Sometimes the animals would be deceased on arrival. Reporter both wanted us to alter their voices and appearances to protect their careers. They worked for a pet care company hired by United Airlines to provide quality control. Inside this Holding Facility on airport grounds, both made sure animals were fed and walked and secure in their crates while being shipped. From there, uniteds cargo employees would take the animals out to the tarmac. She was tying in front of me. Reporter they chose to speak out after seeing what happened to this animal. Sinclair filmed this video, showing sedonas crate on the tarmac in 90 plus degree heat during a layover in houston. She spent nearly 3,000 in vet bills. United responded by sending the Investigative Unit a state saying, we offered to compensate her by fully reimbursing our vet ball but she declined to accept the terms of our agreement. I wanted to reach out and tell her im not surprised at all. Reporter not surprised because they claim theyve witnessed other problems, as well. Even sent these photos to united supervisors, like this puppy that arrived bloated and sick, because they argue she was too young to fly. Pets out water or water that a dog can hardly reach in its crate. Sometimes the crate is upside down, no cups inside. Reporter we asked several times for an interview, can you united declined, sending us this statement saying in part without providing us specifics on times, dates or locations, we are up able to directly respond to or research these allegations. The carrier also says, their petsafe partners and employees are well trained in animal care and competed a customized live handling course. According to the website, they guaranty that pets travel in climate controlled vehicles for connections in uniteds hubs. I know for a fact there were many summers where the temperatures didnt work. Reporter pet owners can track their animals in transit. They sent a dog supposed to go to florida to hong kong. How do you send an animal to the wrong country . Complete careless n. Reporter dr. Gerald russian works at the usda in washington, d. C. They enforce the Animal Welfare act. Our goal is always to have zero injuries. Reporter he argues incidentks be prevented. During unannounced usda inspections. We shared with him some of the complaints the pet handlers sent to united supervisors. Like in july, when employees refused to remove a Gold Retriever off of a tarmac, instead they kept smoking and talking with the dog in the heat. The incidents you described to me, we have to look into it. Reporter by law, Airlines Must report incidents to the department of transportation. Those reports are sent once a month to the usda. Then they can investigate and can take action. But united hasnt reported sedonas incident to the d. O. T. Records show she suffered heat stroke, which can be considered an illness. Airlines only report to d. O. T. When an animal dies, disappears or is injured. Some would argue that the airlines arent motivated to necessarily report it. We dont base our jobs on whats reported. Our role is to do our inspections and to look into complaints. So if theyre not reporting it, thats d. O. T. s role. Reporter but during the four months the pet handlers were sending emails to supervisors, we could not find any unannounced usda inspections. You worked at one of the busiest airports in the u. S. For five years. How often did you see a usda investigator show up unannounced . Im going to say maybe once. Reporter did you ever see a usda investigator show up unannounced . No. Reporter and inspectors visit airports two to three times a year, sometimes more if complaints are filed. There have been more than 400 reports of animals dying, disappearing or being injured in the care of airlines since 2005. The airlines argue thousands of pets are safely shipped every year. And the usda urges if anything happens that they should report it directly to them. We set up a link on our website so people can do that. Troubling for us pet owners. Thank you, elise. If you have a tip, give us a call or you can always send us an email. Should we track down janell wang . Back to our olympic coverage. Its not just about the athletes, but also about mom and dad. Theres a special place for them in sochi. Janell wang joins us from olympic park. Hi, janell. Reporter hi. Some of the athletes are here from nearly a month and their families want to be here to support them. That includes parents, sometimes even children. The athletes are busy, which is most of the time, but the families have a little getaway, called the proctor and gamble house. It had its Opening Party thursday night and we were invited to check it out. The house is open to all athletes and family from every country. It looks like a winter lodge in the middle of winter park and provides foods and drinks. A place to hook up on the internet, as well. Theres even a beauty salon where moms can get their hair and makeup done. Theres even a diaper changing room. We caught up with nick and asked him about his first olympics. I think tomorrow night it will hit me in opening ceremonies. Im feeling amazing. Its been such an awesome journey. Nick has worked really hard. Its been a family affair. Reporter 19yearold nick is a slope style skier. They called the slope dangerous, very steep. But nick says thats all true, but thats the sport and he loves it. He says the russians did a great job building the course and he said pretty stoked to lay it down. Thats skiing lingo for you folks back home. S i know everyone is to sworn to secrecy, but have you gotten any little bits of information about what opening ceremonies might be like . Reporter its happening at the olympic park, right behind me way off in the distance. It can seat 40,000 people. We have 230 athletes walking in the opening ceremony. Families will be watching. We did speak with a volunteer. She said its going to get cold in there. Winterylike, and even you at home may feel a chill. Thats all i can say for now. Special agent janell wang reporting to us from sochi. Thank you. If you want to keep track with janell, shes blogging and facebooking and everything online. Link to her by going to our website, nbcbayarea. Com. So it a es going to get cold over there and here a lot of rain. Chief meteorologist jeff ranieri has the forecast. Lets get a look. Our next storm is developing offshore and we have some very heavy rainfall on the way. Weve been talking about it for the weekend, each some flooding concerns. The other thing were tracking throughout the east bay is so much low level moils dhur at this hour that were getting some drizzle. Youll still need those windshield wipers tomorrow morning. We talked about this subtropical area of moisture moving in from the south. Were going to see that throughout the next couple of days. Thats whats going to add this extra boost to our storm system out here in the pacific. But its not one primary storm system that were focusing on. Its going to be several waves of energy that will be moving across to help bring us this wet weather as we head throughout the next 48 hours. So lets take you to the timing on this. If you can see the future cast, 6 00 a. M. Tomorrow, mainly cloudy, areas of drizzle. Well start to see that consistent rainfall drop down as we head down to 4 00, 5 00, 6 00, gradually to the south bay. Throughout the evening hours, rainfall continues to spread across the bay. Were not going to see a budge, even for saturday morning. We could see a heavier zone of rain move in at 8 00 a. M. Thats when we will have heightened flooding concerns, down to about San Francisco. Then youll see this river of moisture continue as the rain models have not let up, and the possibility of rain continuing through saturday at 9 00 p. M. , also into sunday, as well. We havent seen anything like this in over 365 days. So heres what you can expect with this weather. Again, were going to break it down for you a little differenty. Totals will be wide ranging, 1 1 2 to 6 inches. Highest totals, the north bay and the coastal mountains. Impacts, small creeks, streams and rivers could rise quickly like we saw earlier today and ponding on the roadways. And the worst rain in these counties. Forecast tomorrow, a few breaks of sunshine. Temperatures in the 50s. Youre going to have mid to upper 50s. North bay, east bay and trivalley, temperatures here in the 50s for tomorrow, as well. Although i think the north bay will have the zone again with that rainfall moving down first into that forecast. So as we take you into something else, the added equation, it is the toyota tahoe ski report. Snow not only tomorrow night, but for saturday and also on sunday, totals could range anywhere from 2 to maybe 3 feet at the highest peaks at 7,000 feet. So we have the heavy snow. Well have the heavy rainfall and well have those flooding concerns with us throughout this wmd. Well continue to track it all wmd. This is a conservative estimate look at where we could see some of the totals, but much higher at the coast and the higher elevations. Thank you, jeff. Well be right back in a moment. Could there be a break in the sierra lamar case . We have exclusive new information. Authorities searched the bottom of a south bay lake today. This is video from this. Were not revealing the name of the lake for the integrity of the search. They used a powerful new sonar. Officials said it was training, but sources tell us theyre looking for new evidence. Sierra lamar disappeared almost two years ago on her way to school. Most of us are annoyed by junk mail but a bay area woman got an insulting piece of mail from bank of america. Take a look at who this offer is addressed to. She says she was shocked when she receive mailed to lisa is a slut mcintyre. She thinks a data entry person did it. The bank hassal po has apologized. Its hiphop. For crosscountry, classical. And for jumps, i need something. Special. So i use my Citi Thankyou visa card for music downloads and earn two times the points. Plus a little extra inspiration. [ music plays ] the Citi Thankyou preferred visa card. Earn two times the points on entertainment and dining out with no annual fee. Citi, with you every step of the way. A former College Basketball player might need to suit up for the warriors at this pace. Anything would be better than that charlotte game. Hosting chicago, both david lee and andrew bogut on the bench, due to shoulder issues. Warriors a little light at oracle, but not a problem. Second quarter, curry nails a deep three. Warriors up four at the break. In the third, Draymond Green is not playing around. The lead is six. Fourth quarter, curry with the triple. They win 10287. So the at t pebble beach proam, james hans, eagle on number six, the highlight of round one. He fired a 69 to go with a chest bump of the day. Andrew loop leads at 8 under par. And used to sell womens shoes before selling pro. You think his current gig is a little better . Thats it for sports. More after the break. Yep, paid that one. What about your mortgage . Yep, paid that too. Alright were good then. Man i feel like im forgetting something. Eh, its probably nothing. You worry too much ted. Alright, hammer down bank from almost anywhere with the citi mobile app. Citi, with you every step of the way. Okay, you dont want to miss the tonight show coming up after the news cast. It is jays last show. This is how los angeles is paying tribute. Check it out. A building lit up with the message, thanks, jay. And the white house tweeting out this photo with the caption, thanks for all the memories, jay leno, 22 years of laughs. He goes out on top, the show still number one in the time slot. Thats going to do it for us. Hope to see you again tomorrow. Good night. Announcer its the final tonight show with jay leno, featuring rickey minor and the tonight show band. Tonight, jay welcomes special guest billy crystal, and garth brooks. And now, jay leno