microclimate weather alert. the bay area is preparing for more violent weather while just beginning to recover from yesterday's powerful storm. it's killed at least two people, caused damage, and is threatening to flood communities near a major bay area river. let's show you some of the most dramatic video coming into our newsroom. first we're taking you south along the coast. you're looking at pounding waves taking out the capitola pier. now, to drone video that shows the storm surge. significant water swamping homes along the popular capitola waterfront. farther south, a similar issue in aptos. part of the aptos pier has fallen into the ocean. to give you a sense of the waves' strength, take a look at this video taken near pleasure point in santa cruz, washing ashore. now, more footage from the coast. high tide this morning with six-foot waves pummeling santa cruz. the wharf and boardwalk off limits. here's the view from the other side of the boardwalk. the high tide rolling in and forcing surfers back to dry land. all this while rain continues to fall all around the bay area. this is what the downpour looked like in healdsburg this morning. all right. so what's ahead? let's bring in chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. jeff, we're still dealing with this now, but i understand we only get the tiniest bit of a break before we've got to deal with this again. >> just a small one. look at these rainfall totals. this is our third strong storm in eight days. four to seven inches santa cruz mountains. north bay mountains, two to five. not quite as much for the lower elevations but totals still stacking up. let's get you into the rest of this forecast. we'll show you what's happening. you can see on the current loop here, the worst of that storm has started to exit. but there is so much water out there on the roadways. you still have to be really careful tonight. it's like that after-storm, right. it's coing up on your car windshield and you need to have wipers on moderate or high setting. again, the bulk of that heavy rain is cleared out but we're still looking at light to moderate rainfall up through marin, napa, and sonoma counties, tracking off towards the east. it's going to continue in vallejo through 5:11 tonight. i don't want you to let your guard down, at least over the next couple of hours. we still have flood warnings that are up from healdsburg to santa rosa, down through sonoma, including concord, oakland, fremont, and mount diablo. the ground is extremely saturated. creeks, streams and rivers are running high and also fast. use some extra caution out here. again, if you do not know the depth of that water, please turn around and head in the other direction. you still could encounter some flooding conditions even though, again, that storm system has exited. so overall tomorrow, again, it's going to be a break for us. just a slight chance of a spotty shower. hopefully you get a little bit of time to do some of that storm cleanup. temperatures are going to be chilly. 54 in santa rosa. 59 in martinez. san jose, 60. upper 50s and low 60s from san francisco over to half moon bay. let's move it into that next storm system. right now everything we have showing this does not look as strong as we just went through, at least as strong widespread for the bay area. but it's still a decent size the storm here, tapping into an atmospheric river. we'll show you the timeline on it. you can see through tomorrow, rainfall is off to the north. we're dry through the day, just a slight chance of a spotty shower up towards guerneville. as we head through saturday morning, that rain begins to return up towards marin, napa, sonoma counties. picks up through the day on saturday and looks like what could be a very strong round of rain as we roll through sunday morning, maybe even some of those isolated thunderstorms. so when it comes to the forecast, next seven days, again, we're looking at that storm saturday and sunday. then potentially a second one monday and tuesday. that's where we could run into problems because that would be four consecutive days with some pretty heavy downpours on and off right through the bay area. by next wednesday and thursday, not totally sold yet on widespread rain. just calling for 60% to 70% chance. we may get a little something. the way things are panning out for us right now, we may actually see a small break again next wednesday and thursday. so i'm going to keep a close eye on that. i think saturday through next tuesday, that is the zone of concern. of course we'll be here to track it. coming up at 5:00, i'll have the latest on the russian river in guerneville. we'll take a look at everything that happened up there as well. >> jeff, thanks very much. now to a tragic development from this storm. a 2-year-old boy died after a tree fell on his family's mobile home in rural sonoma county. the boy's mother spoke with next bay area's velena jones near occidental, and velena is going to join us live. what did the boy's mom want to say? >> reporter: yeah. well, this is a just tragic scenario all around. the boy a mother was actually walking towards her house when she saw that part of the redwood tree come down, crashing onto her home where both her husband and little boy were inside. they thought both of them were gone until she saw her husband come out of some of that debris, yelling for their little 2 1/2-year-old boy. unfortunately we know that little boy did not make it. she said neighbors and her husband rushed to help, pulled him out, but it was too late. she tells me her little boy was pure joy, always happy, always singing and dancing. she calls him an angel. those are sentiments that his grandmother that we also talked too echoed as well, saying that he just loved being outside. he loved people. he would always make you happy and brighter, and actually his nickname was "goldie" because of how much joy he brought to everybody. >> you were up there all day today. you spoke with people who live in the neighborhood. what did they have to say? >> reporter: you know, they say this is something that just doesn't happen. we're talking about a redwood tree here. and in all the years that they can remember, while there have been plenty of downed trees that have happened throughout storms over the decades, they say redwood trees just don't fall. so this is not only devastating, but shocking to this whole entire community because redwood trees, as you can imagine, we don't hear of this happening. i spoke to one neighbor who said he has lived here for decades. nothing like this has ever happened. no damage around this entire area of this magnitude has happened. so neighbors and this family are coming to grips with not only this tragedy but this sort of freak accident that happened with these winds that were so powerful that were able to push this redwood tree down. now, we are also finding out that after that first initial impact, two other partial branches from that redwood tree also came down. so there was even more damage to this property and to this family. >> velena, thank you so much very much. you'll have a full report at 5:30, right? we look forward to that. so earlier we mentioned one storm death, and now here's the second we know about. fairfield officers say weather caused a deadly crash yesterday morning. an unidentified 19-year-old woman drove into a partially submerged area. her car hydroplaned, then slammed into a utility pole. now, back to all that damage just to the south of us along the coast. this storm combined with large waves is causing havoc in santa cruz county. santa cruz, capitola, aptos all getting hit hard. nbc bay area's robert handa is live in capitola where he's been surveying the damage. what are you seeing there, robert? >> reporter: well, chris, we've been seeing quite a bit of damage here obviously. the storms have been pretty relentless coming through here. they caused a lot of damage in terms of the direct hit that they made on some of the buildings, causing power outages. and then the big waves are basically destroying the capitola wharf and the waves that are coming from there also accelerate and heighten the waves that go through socal creek, which is causing flooding in the neighborhoods. we're seeing evacuations that started today and are continuing. >> and some bearcats and front-end loaders over your left shoulder. what are you seeing as far as cleanup is concerned? especially we're only going to get a small break until the next storm rolls in. what are they trying to do? >> reporter: that's right. they are trying to take advantage of that break in the weather. we'll give a look at what you were talking about here. this is capitola village. so they are cleaning up this area pretty easily because there's nobody here. they're keeping everybody out until the cleanup is done. and most of the businesses, if not all of the businesses, lost power. so there's nobody coming or going. and in the background, you can see the ocean, and you can see the capitola wharf. again, another break for them because the waves aren't coming in as high as they were before. but when they do, you can see big sections coming off. we can pan over here to a little bit more of the village, and you can see the people who are looking at what's going on here in terms of the destruction as well as trying to find out what's going on. in fact, our night crew is over there doing interviews as well with people. that's pretty much what's going on right now. people are trying to survey the damage, assess what's going on, and figure out how to make repairs and to find out if some repairs are actually not possible. >> so, robert, how about the residents and business owners there? how are they balancing out this preparation for the next storm versus trying to actually clean up from the one that pounded them yesterday? >> reporter: well, they have to basically go in stages, you know. first of all, they had to deal with closing the business, trying to deal with the things that have to be done day to day in order to accommodate customers and things like that. then they have to deal with the power outage. right now their basic focus is cleanup, and then trying to figure out how to restore power, which they hope some of them will get power by tonight. and then they'll move on to trying to restore a day-to-day business schedule. right now the focus is really on cleanup because this storm really did hit them pretty hard. >> robert, thank you very much. robert's working on a story that we'll have complete for you in about 30 minutes. let's head to the north bay and an evacuation warning for people living near the russian river. jeff referenced this earlier. flooding is the huge concern there. one woman sent us pictures. the one on the left there was taken yesterday. the one on the right snapped this morning. you can see an obvious ride in floodwater. here's what she had to say about that evacuation order. >> i think it's just important throughout the day, especially through the evening, you can't necessarily see the standing water on the roadways. just try and stay home. heed the authorities' warnings. be safe. >> yep. agree all around. the evacuation order up there applies to low-lying areas near the river from healdsburg to jenner. forecasters expect flood levels to be up. numbers can fluctuate, so everyone near the russian river should really remain on alert. the storm caused a lot of damage along the pacific coastline, specifically in el granada. a tree fell in the middle of the road yesterday. thankfully no people hurt, no homes hit. still a frightening experience. >> we came running outside and saw this tree had taken out some of our tree. took out the power and internet line there and completely blocked the street. it was pretty crazy. luckily no one was hurt. no damage to any property, cars, or people. so we're happy about that. >> around the bay area, other homes and cars not quite as lucky. the storm brought down many, many, many trees. the storm is knocking down more than just trees. a south san francisco gas station lost its canopy. take a look at this. the wind blew it over last night. you can see how the canopy crushed two gas pumps. thankfully no one was injured. workers activated the emergency shutoff right away thankfully. the owner says the canopy was tilting before the storm but high winds during the storm blew it over. leslie arroyo, the deputy city manager of south san francisco, was at the station this morning. >> south san francisco is notoriously known for how windy it is here. it's shocking to see something like this, but i'm also very grateful there were no injuries. i mean it's very surprising that there were no customers here. >> today the owner submitted a permit to demolish and remove that canopy. check out this breathtaking video of san francisco last night. this is looking from russian hill toward nob hill. you can see several bolts of lightning lighting up the city of san francisco. also the storm is creating some problems in downtown oakland last night. this is the 580 underpass on webster street. you can see the water level rising. the street dips there, and it goes under the freeway. that wasn't thunder. this is video inside the salesforce tower, the tallest skyscraper in san francisco. what you just heard was the wind rattling that building way up on high. living on edge. when we come back, we'll take you to a neighborhood in contra costa county. neighbors there are concerned about a hillside that could crumble down on their homes. plus, toppling trees. it's not just the rain. as jeff warned us, the wind is also causing problems. we'll show you the damage in san francisco. don't forget you can stream our newscast on our website, nbcbayarea.com. you can also watch on roku. just select the live tv tile on your home screen and scroll down to channel 133. that's where we live. and if you have a samsung tv, just go to channel 1035. more ways to watch our newscas welcome back. a live look now from nbc bay area's skyranger overhead coyote creek in san jose. remember this creek overflowed and caused major flooding back in 2017. no signs it will reach that level anytime soon, but we are keeping an eye on it. a richmond neighborhood remains evacuated. engineers are watching the hillside above evacuees' homes. crews were inspecting the hillside. earlier this week, large cracks appeared in the hillside. the city called for an evacuation of 15 homes. richmond's mayor said the homeowner's association is taking over work. some awoke this morning to find their gas was turned off as a precautionary measure. >> right now our gas is turned off. you know, the house is kind of chilly this morning. but i understand why because overall, you're trying to say let's make sure everybody is safe. >> we're told the city has not yet decided when or if it will let residents return home. some quick action in fremont today to help two neighbors avoid major flooding. the first near mission boulevard, when a storm drain became a swimming pool-sized flood, spilled over the storm drain, and was starting to send water into the street. but three fremont city workers standing in the deep water managed to find the drain, clear out the debris, and let the water clear just in time. >> it was pretty hard. you saw how much we put pressure trying to pick the grate up. it's too much pressure. you've got debris. you've got water. everything's pushing down. we're not small guys. >> high five, grant. we then followed the crew to its next job where a hillside was spilling mud into a neighborhood. they brought the tools back out and cleared a path for all the water and mud to escape without damaging homes. high five to all of the public works workers out there who are doing work just like this, dirty jobs to keep us safe. now to san francisco. the storm downed hundreds of trees. we can show you a tree that came down on a house at monterey and san fernando streets. no one hurt here but as you can see, the home is damaged. the biggest cleanup for crews near junipero serra. a large cypress knocked down 500 feet of muni lines last night. buses rerouted, streets closed. public works racked up 300 downed tree reports. >> our big priority for san francisco is to keep people safe. that's what we're focused on first. if you see some branches that might be on the sidewalk, we'll get to those. it just may not be for another week or two depending on how many trees we have to deal with in the public right-of-way that's blocking roads. it's really impeding pedestrian passage. >> here's an example of one of the many trees that are at the bottom of the priority list most likely. this is a sidewalk tree that fell over at fulsome and 17th street. after a brief interruption due to a downed tree, caltrans service has returned to normal. the tree fell across the tracks in burlingame last night. it crushed a fence and pulled down electric wires. workers tried to secure those wires. crews have cleared the lines and removed the trees, so caltrans schedule has returned to usual service. now some video from surfers beach in san mateo county. heavy rains swelling the ocean. the waves are splashing right onto the road. cal fire santa cruz, san mateo, says conditions are deteriorating, so please avoid travel if possible. how about snow? the storm is bringing heavy snowfall to the tahoe area. the truckee california highway patrol posted this video to twitter today. the general area is designated for r-2 for pretty much every road. r-2 is a code for chain requirements. it means chains are required on all vehicles except those with four-wheel drive and snow tires. however, that is no green light. the chp urges everyone to avoid travel if possible, please. it's just too dangerous. despite all the flooding and damage, there is some good to come from all this rain perhaps come from all this rain perhaps like perhaps easing the drou - life is uncertain. everyday pressures can feel overwhelming it's okay to feel stressed, anxious, worried, or frustrated. it's normal. with calhope's free and secure mental health resources, it's easy to get the help you and your loved ones need when you need it the most. call our warm line at (833) 317-4673 or live chat at calhope.org today. hi. welcome back. here's a live look at our radar as this storm is now moving out. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is working hard in the microclimate weather center. he'll join us with an update on what we can expect heading into our weekend. spoiler alert, it't's more rain. that's's in about f five minut. floododing in the sououth b. standingng water onn pararts of southboundnd 87. this i is under tayaylor strere. itit often floodods in thahat s. alalso an e entire dowowntown se sidewalk is underwater, we're told, along san carlos street and south fourth street. take a look at this from our reporter gia vang and her photographer, mikey. they were out covering the storm last night with a tree branch fell onto their suv. the sudden impact smashed the back window. luckily both our teammates are okay. in the midst of this deluge, we've received just a brand-new drought reading thankfully. so the question is with all of this rain, we're going to get some relief or not? nbc bay area's cynthia pimental analyzed the just released drought monitor. >> if only we could solve our drought that easy. we have to remember that this is years in the making, and it will take a lot of storms to make a remarkable dent in the kind of situation we're seeing. i have good news to share. let's do a little comparison of the drought monitor map. this was our map for the last week in december. remember we had some rain during the middle of the month that gave way to some improvements in several areas of the golden state. the darker red you see there in the central valley, believe it or not, at that time did shrink by about 5%. there were also some improvements along the eureka coast and in monterey county. the severe drought category that you see in the darker orange includes the bay area and at that time, we didn't see much of a change there. all right. today's map looks much better. there's no more exceptional drought, that dark red color in the southern edge of the central valley. mother nature has removed that category for the time being, so good news there. and here in the bay area, listen to this. we have gone from the severe to moderate category. that's an improvement for some parts of the following three counties -- santa clara, santa cruz, and northern sonoma county. notice that around the sierra, several counties also saw an improvement. so very exciting news here, and we are hopeful that more changes will pop up in next week's map. we have all of this information posted on our website, so just visit nbcbayarea.com. back to you. >> cinthia, thank you. our viewers around thehe bay ar have been sharing videos of the rain falling in their neighborhoods. many captured downed trees, flooding, and strong winds and intense lightning at times. please be sure to share your videos with us by tagging nbc bay area on twitter. thank you for joining us for the news at 4:30. i'm we'll be back in two minutes. okay. this is the worst. it's time to go. >> just trying to pick the grate up. it's too much pressure. you've got debris. you've got water. everything's pushing down. we're not small guys. we're trying to pull with everything we've got. it ain't working. >> a lot of downed trees. i mean the trees are so saturated, there's so much rain, the heaviness of this is what's causing the failure of these things. >> the news at 5:00 starts now. thank you so much for joining us. i'm kira klapper. >> and i'm chris chmura. the storm continues and the coast is being hit pretty hard. there's serious damage in santa cruz, capitola, and aptos because of high waves, wind, and flooding. >> in capitola, homes are flooded. you can see in this video the floodwaters are so high, water is rushing into the backyards of those homes, carrying debris and knocking things over. and more damage in aptos. >> take a look at this. we see a wave come up and totally wipe out the pier. those waves are so high it's basically covering the broken pier. >> and we want to bring you closer to home. our skyranger is live over southbound 880. on the left side of your screen there, where folks have completely shut down the freeway, this is to fix those potholes that have emerged during the last two storms. we once again have team coverage of the storm that roared through the bay area and beyond. our team of reporters are fanned out across the area. this new storm is ravaging one of the most popular beach destinations for people who live here in the bay area. we're talking about capitola. it was hit hard. >> yeah, it was harsh wind and driving rain have brought businesses to a halt, forced neighborhoods to evacuate. it now threatens the future of the iconic capitola wharf. nbc bay area's robert handa joins us live from capitola. robert, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: well, not what i usually see. i don't mind saying that capitola is usually one of my most favorite places to visit, and i'm sure many viewers feel the same way. but now that the storms have come in, it's going to be a while before it looks like it did before. the storms are taking the capitola wharf apart. sections are being torn off by the 30 to 35-foot waves, powered by relentless wind. the almost 900 foot long wharf seems ripped in