Get out of the central valley. Service canceled today and tomorrow. That has been extended due to the Poor Condition of those tracks. Live look outside at walnut creek. You can see the brake lights filling in here. Southbound 680, no blocking incidents in that area. Np 17, very slow and we have a very big crash in sunol on 680. The mandatory evacuations remain in place this morning for 188,000 People Living below the oroville dam. Officials want to stress the dam itself is safe. The concern is over the dams emergency spillway. Crews are racing to fill a giant hole that opened up in the earth. They hope to drop the lake by 50 feet before the rain returns. Right now, its down 10 feet. Fema has mobilized a task force to work with the other agencies and evacuees are being told to be prepared to be out of their homes for days, possibly even weeks. And no word yet from the white house on whether its going to grant governor browns request for emergency funding. Helicopter crews from across the state have been put on stand by to help fill the holes were talking about in the oroville dam. This crew came from red bluff. They are working with jeerlgss and engineers to find the best places to put twoton bags of rocks. Its more a numbers game. The more rock, the more general mass we can in those holes, the better. The helicopter crews are focusing on areas that arent easily accessible to trucks. Pilots say they expect to be making trips for several more days. Crews trying to work fast in sacramento. You can see dozens of people inside of this building. The office of Emergency Services coordinates all of the agencies who are working on the dams spillway as well as services for people who are evacuated. Lieutenant governor gavin newsom toured the operations yesterday. He said the emergency in oroville is a wakeup call and warned the shasta dam in redding has similar problems. That reservoir is the largest in california. A federal official reveals that the oroville dam has been running under a series of temporary licenses for about ten years. Its old permit, which was good for 50 years, actually expired in 2007. The state department of Water Resources applied for a new 50year permit before the old one expired. The federal agency that approves these permits said it just vefd all the information it needs this past december. Theres no word on why it took so long to gather that information. With largely empty towns, Law Enforcement becomes a critical piece in keeping the peace. Officials say they have some reports of looting in butte county and they made an arrest. With nearly 200,000 people evacuated, crime appears to be almost nonexistent. Many evacuees are staying in shelters. Others like this family turning to hotels while they wait this emergency out. Abc7 was in fairfield where a family of 40 from uva city was staying. And they shared their evacuation story. Grandma lives across the street, ran across the street, told her, and all my cousins that were over there, and yeah, it was a pretty hectic scene for a little bit because you dont really know whats going on. The Utility CompanyCalifornia WaterService Provided a few hours for to escape for evacuees and offered up 400 tickets for a free movie in chico. Our coverage continues on the abc7 news app. Make sure to enable push alerts to get updates on your phone or tablet. And we fast forwarded to that photo, new this morning, Palo Alto Police need your help to find this man. And his accomplice who say they say he tried to steal a womans purse over the weekend. This is a sketch of one of the men. They say he tried to grab a womans purse on saturday night. She fended him off by throwing her hot cup of coffee in his face. Police say he tried to punch her, hopped on a bicycle with an accomplice and took off. Anyone with information is asked to call Palo Alto Police. We have an alarming warning for any of you who owns a dog. Vets all over San Francisco are seeing a rise in a potentially deadly problem. Apparently this goes back to the rainy weather. Amy hollyfield is live in San Francisco. Reporter natasha, there are few things you can do to protect your dog, both here at the dog park and at the vet. One veterinarian here in San Francisco has seen five cases of leptospirosis in the past two months. They usually only see one or two a year. One dog, a 13yearold named gertie, died from the disease. One thing you can do is get your dog vaccinated. It isnt a perfect solution but it can help. There are multiple strains of leptospirosis and so this vaccine does not cover all of them. But it is our best measure. Reporter the other thing you can do is keep your pet from drinking from the puddles we have right now from all the rain. Vets say the bacteria can live for days or even possibly months in water. Symptoms include le leather jooe and vomiting and can come on quickly. Theyre hoping that you will spread the word. Tell people at the dog park this morning so we can try and put a stop to this disease spreading so quickly. Live in San Francisco, amy hollyfield, abc7 news. Raiders linebacker aldon smith is now in trouble off the field. The new investigation that could result in serious charges. Plus San Franciscos Civic Center Plaza is about to undergo a major renovation and it could make the area a lot nicer for your kids. And as questions swirl around the safety of Lake Oroville and the dam there, we are reading more about americas infrastructure and ill tell you what ive learned this morning on the grade our countrys getting. It is six minutes after 6 00. Heres a live look outside at the bay bridge toll plaza. The bay bridge toll plaza. We [crying] ahhhhhhhhhh the price you see is the price you pay, unlike cable. The Hydrogen Fueled mirai. Its only emission is water. Toyota. Lets go places. [crying] ahhhhhhhhhh the price you see is the price you pay, unlike cable. Good morning. Time now 6 09 a. M. Take a live look from our tam camera. Showing you high clouds out there. Temperatures in the 40s and 50s this hour but look at your valentines evening planner. Tons of sunshine, mild into the 60s we go and if you have plans later on this evening, leave the rain gear at home. Just a light jacket. Rain does not come back into the picture on thursday. On the storm impact scale, it will be a 1 and we do expect the heaviest rain falling during the thursday morning commute. Thats weather. Lets get a check of traffic with alexis. A little bit of good news just in for the crash in the sunol area. Southbound 680 before you get to andrade, multicar crash and this is really jammed up here but all lanes did reopen just a few moments ago, your backup is solid to 580. Westbound 580, tracy to dublin, thats slow from an earlier crash as well. 1 hour 7 minutes, southbound 680, dublin to mission boulevard, getting you past this crash, 53 minutes, that is really heavy this morning. Northbound 85 okay between 101 and cupertino, green, also crawling out of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Happening today, San Francisco city officials are going to hold a Ground Breaking ceremony for the renovation of civic center and this includes rec and parks remodeling two 20yearold playgrounds. These renderings show what the area is going to look like. I know youre saying thats a playground . Indeed it is. Theyre super fancy. Designers want it to be more open to visitors. Todays ceremony starts at 11 00 this morning. Next, an uber drive that one man will not soon forget. How he saved a woman from a violent attack. Also, a health alert for anyone who experiences back pain. Why doctors now say, you should forget about medication. And as we head to break, we leave you with abc7 news now. Leave you with abc7 news now. You can watch live wonly new alkaseltzer plus st want powerful relief. Free of artificial dyes and preservatives liquid gels delivers the powerful cold symptom relief you need without the unnecessary additives you dont. Loudspeaker clean up, aisle 4. Alkaseltzer plus liquid gels. You can bring yourneed yourbgame instead. Youre just subbing for mrs. Tindalls fifthgrade class. [laughter] yeah, thats not gonna work. Bring out your best you with the refreshing taste of tropicana. She makes the good and the tough times easier. The ever us collection. One diamond for your best friend. One diamond for your true love. Now save 20 off ever us the best prices ever. So now im not being perky, telling you that drivers that switch to progressive save an average of 548 whoo i mean, whoo. Welcome back, and more now on the oroville spillway crisis as questions swirl about its safety. And i have been looking through this report. Its a report card on the nations infrastructure. And the nations dam, take a look here. Getting a d grade. On average, the nations dams, about 52 years old. The oroville dam is actually on the younger side at 49 years old and this report card was issued in 2013 by the nations top engineers. You can see nearly every category here looks grim, levies also getting a d minus, which is notable because one of President Trumps biggest promises for his first 100 days in office is to deliver a 1 trillion infrastructure plan to congress. He has not done that yet. Reggie, natasha, back to you. We wanted to check the safety of a much older dam. This is the Crystal Springs reservoir in san mateo county. It opened in 1888 and at the time, it was the largest concrete dam ever built. A century later, studies show its original 88footwide spillway would be insufficient for handling worst case storms so as part of its upgrade, it was raced by nine feet. It more than doubled the side of the spillway and allowed it to drain. You let more water out more efficiently and faster. Reporter can you let water out faster than water comes in. We can let water out faster than water comes in, in the maximum event. Reporter could you do that before . No. Crystal springs can now hold 15 more water than before while maintaining a margin for safety. Oakland raiders linebacker aldon smith is reportedly under investigation for a domesticrelated incident. San Francisco Police confirm smith was mentioned in a report taken over the weekend. Details are are not being made public. Usa today reports this is a Domestic Violence issue. Police say smith and the reporting party are cooperating. The raiders declined to comment. The team is actually not able to contact smith under rules of his suspension handed down in 2015 after several unrelated incidents. A woman is calling an uber driver a hero for coming to her rescue after a man out of jail on a rape charge attacked her. I turned my uber off, i drove home and i cried because what if i had not been here. That is a very modest marcus fleming. He had just dropped off a customer in raleigh, north carolina, when he drove by a man and a woman. At first he thought they were arguing. He quickly realized that she was being attacked. Fleming made a uturn and aimed his car at the attacker, scaring him away. Police later caught that suspect. The victim says she is sure she would have been killed had fleming not stepped in. Bravo, marcus. If you or someone you know suffers from back pain, listen to this advice from a doctor in new hampshire. Take two aspirin and dont call him in the morning. Heres why. According to the American College of physicians, new guidelines suggest that before doctors presieb painkillers, they need to ask patients to try alternative therapies including acupuncture, massage and or yoga. Basically the study suggesting you wait it out and be active. Research ez want to reframe how patients and doctors think about prescription drugs which are being blamed for fuelling a National Addiction crisis. And take a look at this. A horned owl in vallejo that ended up stuck in fishing line that was tangled between two trees. An alameda sheriffs animal control officer managed to free the owl and it is recovering at the wildlife center. Here you go. What is this . Oh no. I heard what youre doing for valentines day and can you get me an apple pie. You have big fast food plans. I do. Im going to eat as much fast food as i can and then take a nice little nap. Yes. Happy valentines day. And then tomorrow, half off on chocolate so its all good. Live doppler 7 showing you if youre out and about today dont give him back the money. Were showing rain free at the hometown. We have an issue, though, with fog. Well get you down into the north bay. Petaluma, when you have less than 1 4 mile Visibility Like were seeing, that is dense fog you are dealing with in the north bay. So well keep our eye on that. Elsewhere, good morning, south bay. 42 in santa clara. 44, sun sunnyvale. San francisco, and alameda right now, good morning, at 51 degrees. Look at this. Highs today, enjoy this. Its another mild day, lots of sunshine, 63 in San Francisco, about 67 in san jose, 67 the high in concord, 66 in napa, and 68 in antioch. Accuweather 7 day forecast shows you today is the brightest day we have. The storm door opens up early on thursday morning with a 1. Remember, you can track the rain incoming with the abc7 news app any time on your phone. Thats weather. Lets get a check of traffic with alexis. Good morning. Weve got several tough spots to get through morning. Highway 17, if youre coming from santa cruz, you know it is going to be a tough commute. Just so many lingering weather issues. So, northbound 17, your main route out, we still have the slide blocking the northbound lanes at vfd vine hill road. One lane open in each direction. 3 or 4 miles an hour and that backup to 6 miles. That is brutal ask as you know as well, most of those alternate routes are blocked by additional weatherrelated problems. Also, state route 37 still fully blocked between 101 and atherton. Very earliest it could open is thursday but of course thats when we have rain moving back in so chp not sounding for optimistic and we are seeing delays building now. Westbound 37 on to atherton although chp is there offering some Traffic Control as well this morning. Quick check outside, san mateo bring is slow at this point too and well take a look at drive times coming up. Good morning america coming up at 7 00 a. M. Right here. And amy the live from new york city are look at whats ahead. Thats right, good morning to you, natasha and reggie. Coming up next here on gma, whether he continue your coverage of that breaking news. President Trumps National security adviser resigning overnight after misleading Vice President pence about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Our full Political Team joins us live with the very latest on that. Plus bachelorette bomb rachel will join us live in the studio this morning. I was upset because i know rachel doesnt win it all. This is a big spoiler. Amy, i accidentally told natasha that this morning and broke the news and i didnt realize that i was ruining her day. Huge spoiler. Amy, you and i are in the same boat. Thank you, amy. This valentines day, 7 on your sides Michael Finney is helping you find love. Plus the road to selfdriving cars, the meeting between to be lawmakers and Car Companies that could define the future of the technology. And work continues here at the oroville dam. It has gone oun through the night as workers move boulders and dirt and sandbags into place and dirt and sandbags into place to shore up that failing were back at 6 24. Happening today, congress and several car makers are going to discuss the regulations for the future of selfdriving cars. The house energy and Commerce Committee holding that hearing. Representatives from general motors, volvo, toyota, and lyft will be there. Transportation secretary elaine chow has promised to give car makers space to work on the technology that will be used to power selfdriving cars. If you have thought about putting your house on the market, now may be the time. The bay area is the best market in the country for home sellers thanks to high home appreciation and limited inventory. Here are the top five hot spots. Berkeley, san mateo, redwood city, pleasant hill, and fremont. So if you plan on selling, you may not want to wait. Insiders say while the market is hot for sellers, there are signs it may be slowing down. Time now to askfinney. Today on this valentines day, carol from martinez has a question about finding love. Carol, you spoke to us at our askfinney event in walnut creek. 7 on your sides Michael Finney has your answer. I would like to know where to find a really good man. Ive been to meetups and theyre not always necessarily qualitytype people. Dating websites, you dont really know what youre getting. A man that says what he means, means what he says. Hey, carol. Great question. And im sure as you know this gets tricky. Finding love varies for all of us. So even though meetups and dating sites have not yet worked for you, theres hope. Get this. Consumer reports did a survey and found more than 40 of those who tried Online Dating had or are in serious longterm relationships or they got married. So heres what i want you to do. Look for those with common interests. Number one, and heres a tip. Consider talking to the people on the phone first before you meet in person. That will save you a lot of time and grief. Carol, good luck, and happy valentines day. I love carol. Me too. Because she came on tv and she said, i want to find a good man. I wish her all the luck in the world. If you have a question for Michael Finney, record it on your smartphone or tablet, share it on social using askfinney or head to abc7news. Com askfinney an