3, bay area are in san mateo and contra costa counties all moving up in the states reopening tier system. Thank you for joining us this tuesday afternoon here on kron 4 news at im Sanaz Tahernia new are in contra costa and san mateo counties have moved it to the moderates here, more businesses will be allowed to reopen indoor operations with safety precautions and modifications take a look at this map of where our bay area counties stand the newest move leave solano and sonoma counties in the more severe risk tears with sonoma still in the most restricive a widespread purple tier and solano in the red or substantial risks here, San Francisco is the only bay area county and the lowest risk here which is the yellow where it can move to the orange chair once the test Positivity Rate falls between 2, 4. 9 . The San Francisco is in the yellow tear which is the least restrictive tier in terms of reopening non essential some nonessential Office Workers can start showing up back to work kron fours morning. Kelly joins us live in downtown San Francisco. Rain have you notice more people out and about i know i see more cars in the streets but are you are you seeing more people. No saws i am not listen. I am dear off post re really close to the heart of downtown not far from lot of spouting here and i can tell you that im really not seeing very many people here at all now as you were just saying big todays the day that the city is allowing non essential Office Workers to come back to their offices at 25 capacity but from what i can see it looks like a lot of people are still working from home. Valerie chain has been selling bouquets here at the flower cart off Market Street downtown for close to 30 years. She says business is still way down. And while the city has now given non essential businesses, the green light to bring in Office Workers at 25 capacity. She has not seen much of a change today at and that is having a major impact on mom and pop businesses that rely on foot. They said because theres nobody in downtown surprised if i was going to they have to bring in. And instead of coming in. South of market, the manager of orange thomas had just a few customers eating around lunch time, a small fraction of their prepandemic crowd on normal lunch time or davis 80s around 1 oclock. Well have a line around the corner over here. I might be like a 1520 minute, wait and while i dont see that happening for the rest of this year. I believe we are you know well established well loved us from. I believe by next year. January february, well start getting their a game. Several restaurants nearby are boarded up sitting outside a shuttered lunch spot, i found one man who works in commercial real estate he says he and most of his coworkers are coming in about once a week and does not think this new phase of reopening. Its been a change that yeah no i think all the work from home. 3 to 4 days out of the week in perpetuity. So now only time will tell if workers will start gradually coming back to work downtown. For now its just about as big of a ghost town as its been down here for many months tonight back to you. Felipe people will feel more comfortable with coming out into the streets morning. Thank you for that report. Now these reopenings come as the u. S. Is currently dealing with the highest average number of covid19 cases since the pandemic began over the past week, the country reported an average of about 68,000 new cases every day thats up more than 22 compared to the previous week, the average number of deaths per day across the country are also up. 10 over the past 2 weeks to 794 deaths per day. Health officials fear further spread of the virus as we head into the holidays. And governor Gavin Newsome says his new Vaccine Safety Group will not delay distribution of the covid19 vaccine has 3 more states decide to join californias safety effort kron 4 Capitol Bureau reporter Ashley Zavala joins us live from sacramento on with more on the governors update today actually. Yes in oz washington, nevada and oregon have decided to join california Safety Review Group which will essentially put a second set of eyes on an eventual fda approved vaccine before distributing it to these west coast states. Governor Gavin Newsome today responding to critics claims that this could significantly delay a need for californians. No it will not cause any delays in fact we would argue quite the contrary its going to increase transparency and trust state leaders tuesday said as the fda works to approve the covid19 vaccine, the west coast group working to verify its safety does not plan to continue or replicate any trials. Were looking at. Information the data that is a lot of it is publicly reported but through the eyes of experts can be strengthened invalidated the approach that shares and intend to and are going to work very hard to make sure that the trust of the public is what we have and sharing this information in a clear concise way without delay state officials announced an Additional Group focused on the vaccine. A new 16 person panel will come up with guidelines on vaccine ethics and distribution that theyre safely transported. That theyre safely stored that were having a mindset of safety related to public data or rather. Private and personal debt and whats that line whats that distinction theres no timetable for any of this until a vaccine is approved newsoms administration has said it likely wont happen in 2020. So planning for the vaccine comes as california is now starting to see an uptick in hospitalizations and icu admissions. Both are up about 5 over the last 2 weeks. The governor says later this looking forward he is going to announce something related to testing capacity. Reporting live in sacramento, Ashley Zavala kron 4 news. Thank you for that report from sacramento, ashley. And on to our other big story this tuesday, several bay area still in the dark following the latest pga any shot off kuz caused. By the high wind event sunday night does take a look at the outage map on pg es website, the purple triangles well show you in a moment is shows where areas are without power this afternoon. The utility began restoring power on monday afternoon. But there are still about a 180,000 customers to go. I want to go live to kron fours dan kerman in the city of calistoga. The latest we heard from the tv was the nominee county was at one percent in the restoration process. Whats the latest at this hour and how are residents will well theyre doing a little bit better right now in napa county we can tell you there are still about 7700 people without power thats out of 11,000. Now half of calistoga as you west side of the river. At the downtown still has power side of the river still has power but still 7700 people in napa county still without power. That is still without power should be restored by 10 oclock tonight, however, and this is the big however, one area of napa county. Do not get the air all clear until this afternoon as a result that area will not get so its going to be dark tonight, even before the darkness comes for some here in napa county. But again, the majority of those 7700 should be restored by 10 oclock tonight, however, some and throughout the county item number homes be restored as well as business. Salinas live calistoga that report and youll have more for us on kron 4 news at 5, 6 this evening. And on the east bay, the Oakland Fire Department responded to a 2 alarm fire this morning that broke out in the oakland hills, a crew on crown avenue and merriewood drive Officials Say 2 structures were involved in the fire that spread to nearby vegetation. The space hills are still under a red flag warning this afternoon did a dry conditions and strong wind gusts and speaking of that red flag warning and the weather lets take a live look outside of the Golden Gate Bridge that red flag warning thats been in effect since sunday morning is set to expire at 05 00pm so we want to check in with kron 4 meteorologist dave spahr dave are expecting any more fire weather this week. Well after this it should go into the clear but well for right now as you mentioned the red flag warning covering those Higher Elevations thats the name of the game. Were in the east bay from this Vantage PointSolano County, its everywhere and again as you mentioned its still 5 oclock also covering the north bay hills and all of us again for the say hour and 45 minutes or so this gives you an idea of the total Coverage Area whos in whos not the peninsulas in the clear Santa Cruz Mountains is in the clear in the lower elevations east bay shoreline all in the clear for now again waiting for this to expire in the next ball just under 2 hours live shot from the golden way up in the distance from the shot from timber on and look at the current winds. Problem is the air is very dry just a little bit of a breeze leftover to continues generally speaking up from an offshore direction. Current temperatures though kind of lofty though 82 going on for hayward is 78 upper fremont mid 70s to the east bay with an 85 santa rosa. Yeah, were warmer across a good chunk of the real estate, although touch cooler here for this trip up here in the north bay forecast tonight, 48 San Francisco, 54 oakland 49 san jose over across the wider bay, were looking for some 30s to be found and some of those pockets in the inland regions and that really depends on the local area shielded from the winds thats the key issue because the dryer clear skies allows the radiational cooling so bundle up a touch tonight, we have a closer look forecast. Its not its thank you for that day. Round 4 is your local election headquarters this election season in just a friendly reminder that were just one week away from the big day on november, 3rd. Here in the bay area local election offices are seeing large numbers of ballots coming in for example, Santa Clara CountyOfficials Say theyve received more than 380,000 ballots. So far. And you want to make sure your ballot gets counted. The u. S. Postal service says it needs to be dropped in the mail today. Although vote by mail varies by state the Postal Service says if you do not mail your ballot by today. It will be it will be drug you will need rather to be to drop it off at a ballot box ensure your vote counts Contra Costa County voter Registrars Office. They advise that you not wait any and i highly encourage voters to do that. One thing about 2020. Ive learned is you never know whats happening. Whats going to happen tomorrow. You know today we have our show us there might be power shutoffs on election day might the wildfires and evacuations is there might be a covid outbreak where you live. You know you never know so why take the chance. As mentioned vote by mail deadlines, vary by state here in california ballots returned by mail must be most postmarked no later than 11 3 2020, and received no later then 17 days after the election to be counted. Kron fours committed to helping make sure your vote counts so if you experience a problem casting your ballot just let us know and we will investigate you can email us at voting problems. Kron 4 dot com. Coming up here on a kron 4 news at 3 were just one week away from election day and why some election Officials Say a delay in results isnt necessarily a bad thing. And next Fire Prevention efforts today in the Santa Cruz Mountains the dangers that socalled widow makers the fire and smoke have long has since cleared. But the devastation wrought by the czu lightning complex fire has taken a huge toll on trees in the Santa Cruz Mountains sadly, thousands of them are dead or dying and now pose a threat to Public Safety. Kron fours rob fladeboe has more on the story now live. Good afternoon im here along the highway one north of santa cruz, a couple of miles over that ridge behind me there is the community bonnie dune arguably one of the hardest hit areas of the czu lightning complex wireless took a look at some video. This is us watching road off of highway one and as you drive up swan to last chance you see that perhaps 70 to 80 . Of the homes are gone in this area, but just as heartbreaking to see as the loss of all of the trees were talking about. Redwood trees here Monterey Pines a 100 foot tall or more all of them have to come down or at least most of them. The county Public Works Department has been out assessing the damage. They tell me that there are at least 1100 trees along the public roadway there along swan road that have to come down across 45 miles of throughout the czu lightning complex fire. 86,000 acres that were maybe 10,000 trees have got to come down. You hear the term widow maker this is a term referred to when a tree is leaning out over the road and limbs and branches snap off they can hit cars and motorists and residents is there going by these all have to come down and they are damaged and they are threat to Public Safety i spoke with one homeowner there. Mister kelly foster who lost a virtually every tree on his 100 Monterey Pines he says and so the county is going through here and theyre knocking these trees down you see logging trucks rolling by a an army of people armed with chainsaws knocking these trees down and this is going to go on for months right on through the winter and eventually maybe even into next year. Thing to think about here too is one the potential for a disaster on top of a disaster and that is the threat of mudslides and debris flows once these trees are removed. Theres nothing nothing left in places to hold the soil in place so theres also washing for debris flows and there will be some mitigation efforts underway to stop that erosion wants these trees are down. But again thats the situation on swanton road and it will be happening on other roads throughout the fire zone in the months ahead, live in santa cruz rob fladeboe kron 4 news. Rob thank you for that report. Switching gears now to talk about the weather. This is a live look at the san mateo bridge we are in the last couple hours of this red flag warnings, lets check in with dave who has a look at our forecast day. Sanaas what we have little picture here from walnut creek get an idea whats going on in the east bay where dont forget in those hills still looking at that red flag warning as you said for a little bit over an hour current winds again. Theyre favoring the offshore direction that theyre going to start to break up a little bit be more variable going for it on our show you those projections in just a bit warmed up nicely though we got the to middle 70s excuse me in the east bay 82 for hayward kind of freakishly warm number there along the east bay shoreline and up in the north bay, rosa elsewhere, mostly into the 70s now as we start to lose some of these winds were going to be banking off that dry atmosphere remember temperatures plummeting at night with those clear skies when projections, okay well lose some of that Going Forward thats why the red flag warning will be allowed to expire little bit of resurgence starts to happen when we get to tomorrow just a touch there, but its going to be more variable and also allow a little bit of an onshore wind to chip away at the dry air at the coast might even start to see some coastal clouds trying to work in here least maybe that by the end of the week. Now look at the humidity levels Going Forward with all of this we see these numbers pop up a little bit at the coast into the 60s. He usually would say that in the afternoon, not the Morning Hours like this but were still very dry. Not as bad as we were about 24 hours ago. But whats interesting here as we go to the very end and you can make this out on thursday looks like some dry air trying to sneak back in here again up there the north and the north thats before the weekend its more parent as you can see here by thursday afternoon. You see those numbers drop anyway in the afternoon or down to those dangerous teens we wont be having a lot of winds at that point so that may not pose a problem, but it still will be very dry and that means chilly at night so putting this all together for you red flag warnings with us until 5 this evening again thats the north and east bay hills for this week it remains dry mild though with a some 80s working here and maybe some middle 80s by this weekend and finally some coastal clouds returning to knots. Thank you for that. And with just a week left states around the country say this election day will be different many states are already seeing record turnout. As the pandemic encourages many people to vote early or by mail now due to varying election laws, some states wont be able to count ballots until the night of the election that combined with record turnout could delay election results. Trying to manage expectations. Now to say when the system when people are counting ballots effectively and efficiently and carefully and accurately that takes time it cant be done instantly. Now in some swing states such as florida Election Officials can start counting ballots before election day. Still ahead we have a live interview with San Franciscos the Health Director doctor grant colfax how the city has moved up to be th