It is so intense out there. Take a look at this video. This is the traffic backup this morning from a huge pothole that opened up on 580 near livermore. Its still backed up right now. Elissa harrington is live at the scene. I understand that road wont be clear for hours understandably. Reporter problems started around 3 00 a. M. Repairs are taking a lot longer than expected. Caltrans crews will be out here until 9 00 or 10 00 tonight. This pothole opened up right at the edge of the overcrossing where you can see traffic is still crawling. This hazard is causing headaches for drivers including one man i talked to who missed his Early Morning flight. How long were in you traffic . Id say about 2 1 2 hours. Reporter it was a rough morning for thousands of drivers like Terrence Carter stuck for hours along interstate 580 near livermore. Video from sky 7 shows the line of cars moving at washington speed stretched all the way to tracy. I was more than stressed out. I had anxiety, fear of missing my flight this it did happen. Had to use the restroom. Reporter Highway Patrol closed two of the four westbound lanes because of this, a giants pothole that exposed rebar in the concrete. Caltrans crews with jackhammers, hoses and shovels worked nonstop to fix it. A Spokesman Says a few things caused this pothole to open up. Potholes always crop up when you have weather like this. Weve had a lot of rain for a long time. And that is just when they happen. Also 580, the pavement hasnt been in good shape for a while because that is a major east west route. Reporter nobody was hurt will, but the chp got the 15 calls for flat tires. Ray louie us a one of the unlucky ones. It was bad. It was a big bump. Luckily i didnt lose control of my xcar. Reporter he did have to wait five hours for a tow truck which was stuck in this traffic. Pair rely to the freeway is old al tatamont pass road. It was backed up earlier, but now one of the faster ways to travel. Reporting live in livermore, elissa harrington, abc 7 news. With much of the bay area commute crippled by potholes, many are asking how do they form and can i get compensated for damage to my car. Great questions. Kristen seay is here with the information. Driving over a pothole can do a lot of damage to your car. Not to mention your wallet. But why do they form . Lets take a look, shall we . Here is a slice of a road. You have the top layer, thats the pavement you drive on. And underneath it, you have the rock base and the soil. Now, during the heat of the summer, that causes tiny cracks to form in the pavement. So when it rain, water seeps in and the tires actually squeeze the water into the pavement that causes air gaps and washes on the base layer. So the softened asphalt or concrete begins to break up under the weight of passing cars and as they drive over the weakened spot again and again, a pothole is born. So the situation is even worse in the sierra and other places where it snows because the water that seeps under the pavement will freeze and expand and then thaw out and contract. A sure way to weaken the road quickly. So what can you do if you hit a pothole . If its a road maintained by caltrans, you can file a damage claim. The form is on its website. And remember, most claims need to be made within six months of the incident. We do have a link to the caltrans claim on our website, abc7news. Com. A man with a pick ax came to the rescue after a crash on a rain slicked road in the east bay. Take a look at the victims car. The driver lost control and landed upside down in a creek. Water was filling the car quickly, but a passing driver grabbed a pick ax, smashed the rear window and pulled the victim to safety. Fortunately the driver wasnt seriously hurt. More mudslides today in the santa cruz mountains, this one in the southbound lanes on highway 17 just south of lexington reservoir. This as crews are still trying to clear yesterdays slide near scott thes v ee Scotts Valley. Here is matt keller. Reporter this is an improvement. Southbound lanes of highway 17 just north of Scotts Valley are now split in two, one going northbound, one southbound until this mess can be cleaned up. This mud slide came down yesterday morning crushing a truck and forcing the chp to shut down all of highway 17 until late last night. Id say 35 would be a good speed to drive on 17 in the Current Conditions watching out for slides and the rain. Reporter caltrans is in charge of getting this mud and debris cleaned up an stabilizing the hillside. This is the biggest mud slide ive ever been involved with and have seen on this highway. Reporter caltrans will be using special equipment called a spider to get up the hill to start removing unstable debris. If all this seems like deja vu to you, it did happen before in this exact same location. Mud, rocks, trees and debris hit our abc 7 news van on january 9th sending a photographer to the hospital. Caltrans engineers say they thought they did their job, but there are some things you just cant stop from happening. There was no way to prevent this is what youre saying . No, this is definitely close to one of those act of god type of slide areas. Reporter chp told me there were a lot of mudslides and trees down overnight here in the santa cruz mountains, most of those messes have been cleaned up, but a lot of the back roads in the mountains are closed down. So you have to be careful when heading out on the roads. And they say because of the rain coming in tomorrow, if you can avoid driving, to do that, stay home and be safe. Matt keller, abc 7 news. Crews are working to remove a large eucalyptus tree that is blocking diablo road. It came down taking down a power pole. The road is closed and isnt expected to reopen until later this evening. Reservoirs are spilling over in marin county. The municipal Water District shared this amazing video with us. Today the district is 121 above average with nearly 26 inches of rain last month, the district says it was the wettest january since 1995. Compare that to 2014 when made marin severed just 0. 1 inches. To changing conditions on live doppler 7, track it all with the abc 7 news app. You can get the forecast anytime in your neighborhood. New at 4 00, several robbery suspects are in custody following a Wild Police Chase down the embarcadero in San Francisco. The pursuit came to an end when the suspect hes car crashed headon into a police vap right o van right oside our studios. The four men were quickly captured. Officers had received a report of a violent purse snatching at pier 33. It wasnt just your average percent sthach. There was a fight over the purse, victim didnt want to give the purse up, so there was a fight and the victim lost. Suspects grabbed the purse and away they went. The victim was not hurt, necessary was the officer in the police van hit headon. Officers also found open containers of alcohol in that vehicle. Were learning the 58yearold man accused of killing his livein girlfriend has been found dead. A source close to the investigation says digrazia was found dead with a selfinflicted gunshot wound. The woman hes accused of killing was found dead yesterday inside a home on san marcos court. Officers initially went to the house for report of a stolen car. When they got the there, neighbors told them about a file inside the house and thats when they found the womans body, she had been shot. A car hit and killed a bicyclist in North Berkeley this morning. An Accident Investigation Team spent most of the day on sacramento street just off hopkins. The man who was kill has not been identified. The driver of the prius that hit him stopped at the scene and is cooperating with investigators. Today the president took aim at the federal judges who will decide the fate of his travel ban accusing them of playing politics. His remarks come one day after the ninth Circuit Court of appeals in San Francisco heard a challenge to the president s policy. A ruling is likely later this week. Could come at any time in fact. The president s ordering temporarily bans travel for citizens of seven mostly muslim countries and limits the nations refugee program. An interpreter who helped u. S. Soldiers in afghanistan is now safely in the bay area. Hes pictured here. He arrived at San FranciscoInternational Airport today. Matthew ball led the effort to get him into the United States raising 26,000 in a gofundme campaign. Ball took action amid concerns that afghanistan might be added to the trump administrations travel ban list. He had lived in hiding from the taliban for nearly four years as he waited for his special immigrant visa. The fbi is now involved in the investigation into violence protests at uc berkeley. Fbi agents say they have been in contact with uc berkeley over the squint that led to President Trump tweeting a threat to full federal funds from the school. Black block is a group not students. Demonstrators in San Francisco took part in a nationwide last stand today against the Dakota Access pipeline. Abc 7 news was in front of the Federal Building on 7th street this morning. Several protestors were arrested for blocking Public Access to the building. The demonstrations come as the u. S. Army corps of engineers plans on moving forward with the final phase of the pipeline immediately. The Standing Rock sioux tribe says it will sue the federal government because of it. Were learning new details today about the deadly ghost ship fire in oakland. It turns out police had been there multiple times in the past few year. Use more have been done to prevent the fire . Plus tell from the wire and were injured. Horror after a high wire act involving a world famous tight rope walker comes tumbling down. And taking a live look at our traffic through san jose, this is 101 southbound where the backup is. Northbound looking good. And 880 flowing this both directions over the top. Five people were seriously hurt practicing a high wire act involving nik wallenda. The accident happened in florida and involved several members of the wallenda family. Authorities say wallenda was not injured. The group was practicing inside the big top when an eight man pyramid came tumbling down. Members of that act fell from the wire and were injured. Extremely lucky given the height of the fall that they survived. Officials say wallenda managed to stay in the air, but five other performers fell 25 feet to the ground. Despite the accident, the circus will open as planned on friday. This afternoon we have new details on the ghost ship fire investigation. The city of oakland released hundreds of pages of documents revealing just how many times officials were inside the warehouse long before the fire that killed 36 people in december. Laura anthony pored over those documents and is live at Oakland City Hall with the story. Reporter the city released today 300 pages of documents perhaps the most revealing aspect the number of times the police visited the ghost ship, including to investigate an Illegal Party much like the one that happened on the night of the deadly fire. Newly released documents from the city of oakland show several city agencies including the Police Department visited the ghost ship warehouse dozenses of times in the months and years leading up to last decembers deadly fire. Between 2007 and december 2016, oped officers responded to 35 calls for service to the tli addresses directly associated with the warehouse. On about a dozen occasions, officers went inside the building which was being used illegally for housing. Among the crimes, opd investigated, a stabbing, assaults, burglaries, thefts and narcotics. In march of 2015, officers even responded to a report of a rave, an Illegal Party at the ghost ship where drugs were are reportedly being sold. But there were no arrests or citations. There were many calls, many responses. Reporter a city council men needs city agencies need to communicate better with one another going forward. The communication, the cooperation sometimes is not there like it should be. And this is an example as to what happens. Reporter in a statement with the document release, the mayor says i strongly believe that sunshine helps light the path forward, our impacted community deserves to know all the facts about this tragedy. In the meantime the Small Business administration has opened an office across from the ghost ship offering low interest loans to residents and businesses impacted by the tragedy. The residents we will offer renting loans up to 40,000 at a 1. 5 rate for the business owner, at a 3 abo. 125 rate to h them repair and recover. Reporter all this comes as its been revealed that fire chief reed is on leave. Its not clear if by her own choice. Reed was under fire in the weeks after the tragedy because some thought that inspection protocols by her department were lax. In oakland, laura anthony, abc 7 news. It sounds like the police were actually there a lot, but is it normal practice for a Police Officer to call say the Building Department if they see a code violation at a particular location . Reporter that is an interesting point, dan. The way its been explained to me is that police at least in oak rapped until now deal with crime, they dont necessarily go to a location and then try to look for Code Violations for instance. That their first priority, their job is to deal with whatever criminal activity might be going on. And that theyre just not trained and not in the business of looking for other types of violations for instance code enforcement. So if there was an effort to expand their duties going forward, that would have to be something that is discussed s l certainly at the top levels of the city. Thanks, laura. New details on the reports that some gas bills have doubled or tripled. Jerry hill says his office has launched an investigation. Some customers in the bay area and Sacramento Valley say their gas and electric bills went up significantly. Pg and e says its likely because of last years rate hikes plus increased use in the winter. Coming up on abc 7 news at 6 00, Michael Finney talks to home openers who were outraged about those spikes in their gas bills and he found out those rate hikes arent over yet. Southern California Utility Company will pay 8. 5 million to settle a lawsuit over a four month long gas leak that sickened thousands near los angeles. So cal gas discovered the methane leak in october of 2015, but it was not capped until february of last year. The local air quality regulators sued the utility, they claim the leak was the largest known release of climate changing carbon in u. S. History. All right. Its time to take a look at our weather and another three coming our way . Second one within a week. I hate to be the bearer of gloomy news, but likely to see more flooding along with mud slide, power outages. We have calm conditions relatively right now with scattered showers around the bay area. A little wetter in the north bay. And its mild. We have temperature readings right now generally in the mid60s across the bay area. So lets move along and take a look at Current Conditions from emeryville looking at cloudy skies over the bay. Well have rainy, windy conditions. Showers will linger at least through friday morning. But we have a dry and sunny string of days coming our way beginning saturday. Our current storm is a light storm ranking only one on the storm impact scale. It will continue to produce light showers and it will turn breezy later tonight. But the next storm tomorrow is the big one. Its a very strong storm, ranking three on the storm impact scale. It will produce heavy rainfall, gusty wind. Highest impact from the storm will be felt in the north bay, santa cruise mountains, but it will impact the entire region. So lets start at 5 00 this afternoon for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening hour, well just see scattered showers. And then late tonight early tomorrow morning, well see the next storm arriving by 7 00 tomorrow morning, well see widespread moderate to heavy rainfall across the north bay. By 10 00 tomorrow morning, moderate to heavy rain will be drenching the entire bay area. Notice this line of orange and red that represents the heaviest downpours. It will reach right through the central part of the bay area by 10 00 tomorrow morning, driving conditions will be terrible throughout the day. Pretty bad for pedestrian, as well. Into the afternoon and evening hours, the rainfall continues. It will start to wind down in the north bay, but it will have dumped so much rain up there already that there will be wet roadways right into the evening hours in the north bay as well as across the entire bay area. Now, the highest impact once again will be the north bay and santa cruz mountains. Expect rapid rises of streams and rivers. We may say 4 inches or more in the areas in the red here. Rock slides, mudslides, downed trees are likely. And the same areas are covered by the Flash Flood Watch to early friday morning. Same concerns there. And potential for rainfall through thursday, 2 to 4 inches or more in the north bay and santa cruz mountains. Only a quarter to three quarters in the south bay. Three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half through the central part of the bay area. And on top of that, a wind advisory is in effect for most of the bay area with most winds generally out of the south at 15 to 30 Miles Per Hour. But gusts will reach from 45 to 60 Miles Per Hour. Here is the accuweather 7 day forecast. On friday, showers will linger in the morning hours. And we rate that storm 1 on the impact scale. After that, we get a string of sunny a