that's where all of our flooding concern comes from. i'll have another update at 5:10, also 5:19 we'll take you through the major rivers the bay area. we'll show you when they crest and when dryer weather is expected. t probnk you, jeff. owins stay in the north bay for ing ment. d norelentless rain there creating big problems in guerneville. jodi hbeen showing you live the russ of the flood tlg the iver few days. ers. .'s going from bad to worse. nbc bay area's jodie hernandez joins us with what is being done now to protect people in the path of those flood waters. jodie. >> reporter: jessica, folks here in guerneville haven't seen river levels like this in years. i'm actually standing in the russian river. now, this is normally a roadway that leads to a beach. you can see just how high the river has gotten. it's at about 34 feet right now and it's expected to go up another 4 feet by tomorrow afternoon. i am told that is approaching a major flood situation. with yet another round of rain pounding down, the russian river is once again on the rise tonight. already above flood stage, the river has left some campgrounds, cars and trailers under water. emergency responders say it's got the potential to cause even more serious problems. >> we're taking it serious. we have the national guards out here, we have emergency centers opened up, strategically placed for evacuation. we are taking all precautions on this one. >> reporter: it's not just the river that's causing concern. mudslides are also a big threat. this saturated hillside came barrelling down on a guerneville neighborhood. prompting building inspectors to red tag seven houses. >> there's about a 300 to 400-foot mudslide that comes down the canyon here and it blocks three roads and it put seven homes at risk. >> reporter: the river is expected to crest tomorrow and people who live in the area are getting a little anxious. >> i'm terribly worried. it's been a couple days now and supposed to go up again tonight. >> i'm glad i don't own a home along the river. >> reporter: we're back here live. you're looking at the top of a six-foot street sign. again, the river level is about 34 feet right now. it's expected to go to more than 38 feet, and i am told the last time it was that high or higher was january 1st of 2006. so, it's been 11 years since folks have been dealing with something like this. again, it's not just the river that's causing concern. it's the mudslide danger. it's trees falling. just a few minutes ago we heard crackling and then a huge crash. a giant tree went down just a little ways from where we are. fortunately nobody was out there. nobody is hurt. my photographer also saw another tree fall down just before we went on live. so, definitely a dangerous situation here in guerneville. reekrting live i'm jodie hernandez, nbc bay area news. >> treacherous for sure. thank you, jodie. now we heard jeff ranieri tell us a flash flood warning is in effect along the los gatos creek and in campbell. one reason for that as jeff mentioned is the lexington bayrvoir is full and it's dumping excess water over the now.l way right into the los gatos creek. ==rajay area's marianne picks up our coverage from the creek. >> reporter: water gushing over the spill way at lexington reservoir, something that hasn't happened here since march 2011. this water is dropping into los gatos creek which is already swollen and running fast. >> you know, the creek at the levels they're at, 6 inches of water is enough to knock somebody over when it's moving quickly. about a foot of a water when it's moving quickly is enough to float a small car. >> reporter: the los gatos creek trail now looks like a rushing river with more than 3 feet of water covering the popular bike path. this runner had to make a detour and said trail side exercise equipment was submerged. >> you have a foot or two to get to it, the water is swollen pretty good, too. >> reporter: lexington isn't the only reservoir in santa clara county to spill. >> we have uvas and almaden spilling and two or three that could spill by today or tomorrow. >> reporter: and while we need the water, the key is making sure this drought-busting resource doesn't pose a danger. take a look at this. this is the los gatos creek trail. it looks like a rushing river and a bike path is 3 feet under the water. now, the flash flood warning is supposed to expire at 6:30 tonight, but if these conditions persist, it could very well be extended. reporting live in los gatos, ta canne favro, nbc bay area news. >> marianne, thank you. gst's bring in nbc bay area's robert honda reporting from the santa cruz mountains a couple days now. robert, you've seen the mudslides and damage there firsthand. are things getting better or worse at this hour? >> reporter: well, we're here in bolder creek and the people here like many other areas are trying to deal with this constant down poor. some situations you can control, for example, a crew came through here and cleared outs the storm drain, but you can see the water is still backing up pretty quickly. other situations are a little harder to control. the storm has been relentless, causing new damage and making already bad situations even worse. tons of debris including huge fallen trees awaited cal trans crews today as they tried to clear up both sides of highway 9 in felton. motorists looking to head out of town south found the road closed. >> at the end of the day, there are two ends to every road. you can always go around. you can always take the 17. when it's not covered in mud. >> reporter: highway 17 may be bad, but bear creek road is a riskier route and apparently one many people were willing to take. half the road literally collapsed earlier this week, and the county officially closed the road at times. but work crews there say people moved the barriers and go through anyway. today water workers controlled traffic while they put in a bypass pipe because the collapse is threatening the main pipeline that supplies water to the bear creek neighborhood. one resident called the collapse scary and despite the storm still didn't think the road would give way. >> well, i'm surprised it collapsed actually. it didn't seem like it was that unstable around there. so, i mean, i'm sure they're getting on it. i don't know how long it's going to take. >> reporter: nobody really does, and the situations are probably not going to get any better with the rain still coming down. coming up at 6:00 more on those road situations, the local flooding and a water rescue that just took place near us. live in boelgder creek, robert handa, nbc bay area news. >> robtd, thank you. ing an see the water there on unty lens as well. not just the rain, but also the high tide is really a double wham i and causing a lot of anxiety in marin county. nbc bay area's mark matthews is in mill valley this evening and mark, how bad is it there? >> reporter: well, the flooding this morning was mostly the result of the rain added to the high tide in this area was about 10:00 this morning. the next high tide will be about 11:30 or so in lark spur, madera ear i can area. the most we saw was no vat o. we would be there now except we did not want to bring more attention to this one street where neighbors are really beside themselves over the flooding. >> look at this. there's another one. look at this. stop! >> reporter: she is yelling at trucks driving down her flooded street because of the wakes they leave behind. >> look at the sandbag. the side of my house, the front of my house, it's all sand bags. but the water keeps going inside. >> reporter: when a pickup truck rolls by it's a small wake. when a big truck comes down the street, it sloshes water over the sand bags and into the garage. >> i have to clean up again. i'm so tired of this. the city doesn't do anything. >> reporter: she says she has lived in her house for ten years, has never had this problem before. not until cal trans put in a trainage pipe from the freeway on the other side of her street. lauri lives next door, has lived there for 33 years. she, too, says this is the worst she's ever seen. >> cal trans said the city -- it's not helping us. this is the problem. everybody is blaming everybody, and no one is doing anything. >> reporter: i reached out to the city's public works department this afternoon. a spokes woman told me they will "look into it." we'll have more on that coming up tonight at 6 o'clock. reporting from southern mill talley along highway 101, mark matthews, nbc bay area news. >> micro climate welgt era alert continues at this hour. j/ming up we go to danville. phonhome crushed by a tree. we're live in the east bay in anve minutes. dar -- you'd like to track this storm from your phone, download our free nbc bay area app. you can access our live doppler radar. olen is the same radar used by jeff ranieri and his weather ft one >> new at 5:00 tonight, stunning surveillance video of a deadly robbery in vallejo that left one advantd and a dog dead, too. video just came into our newsroom. ward i say these two men stormed the pawn last month, shot the nyner, wounded an employee and then killed the dog, too. for 000 reward is being offered ra you recognize any one of -- w guys. you should call the vallejo p.d. todayald trump's pick for attorney general, jeff sessions, was on the hot seat as confirmation hearings today on d be allowll. senators grilled mr. sessions ons tohis civil rights rt barophy, his stance on immigration, and whether muslims should be allowed to enter the united states. ent-ions told his colleagues he did not support barring muslims from the country and when his r ste relationship with the president-elect also came into question, he says he'd be ut aing to tell donald trump "no" and he won't be a mere e his stamp. >> well, the end is near in about an hour, president obama will deliver his farewell address in the city where his political career began. w course, chicago. the president and first lady boarding air force 1 at a maryland military facility this afternoon. add will be joined in chicago by vice-president joe biden and is wife. now, you can see the president's litire farewell address right here on nbc bay area starting right at 6:00. >> still ahead here at 5:00, the snow is piling up in the sierra. we're going to take you to south lake tahoe to see how much fresh powder and sunshine will be waiting for skiers and boarders in the next few days. >> i'm meteorologist jeff ranieri. our storm is hitting right now. these are the spots that could have some flash flooding within the next three hours. i want to you watch it closely if you live near los gatos creek, corte madera creek, petaluma river napa or the russian river. we're tracking this storm. i'll let you know when it moves out and when we get sunshine in here. that's in less than ten minutes. unfortunatley -- we've seen dozens of downed trtees... this one...inas weath unfortunately we've seen dozens of downed trees. this one in danville, it destroyed much of this house. if you can see in there, a pickup truck in there as well. it's a dangerous and sometimes deadly combination. the soaked earth, big trees, and high winds. nbc bay area's elise continues our coverage this evening from walnut creek. elise. >> reporter: well, raj, with all this rain and it just started coming down even harder here, and all of the wind gusts, we're seeing a lot of problems, mostly trees coming -- crumbling down. if you take a look here across the street, that's what happened here. you can see crews on scene. they were able to remove the tree. they're in the process of getting the bottom of it pushed across the street. and they're also trying to get power back on. it's something we've seen throughout the bay area, particularly here in the east bay all day long. with the rain came the wind. >> sounded like thunder. >> reporter: then this massive heritage oak tree came crashing down, crushing steve's danville home and his three cars. >> and then at that point we were in the kitchen and then you could see stuff through the ceiling. >> the tree fell and shortly after the power went out. >> reporter: in walnut creek, scott was in the middle of work when several downed trees took out power lines along tice valley road. >> the power went out and we were wondering what do we do and everybody's work they were in the middle of >> reporter: it caused power outages and road closures throughout the area. >> all these old eucalyptus trees have a shallow root. i've never seen anything like it. >> reporter: along 880 in oakland, another rare sight, the freeway turned into a parking lot after power lines fell onto the freeway. >> just after 12:20 in the afternoon, a big rig on city streets collided with a power pole, power pole came down. >> reporter: other free ways stayed open, though navigating them proved challenging. for steve hayden who is now trying to salvage his home, he says even with the weather headache as, it could have been a lot worse. >> we're okay. that's all that matters. >> reporter: it is all that matters and back here live you can see crews still working here. it's unclear how long they will be here. now, the road here on tice valley has opened going southbound, but northbound continues to be shut down. so, if you can, avoid the area tonight. reporting live in walnut creek, i'm elyce, nbc bay area news. >> thank you very much. we'll tell you about the other swelling creek. coyote creek, water is moving pretty fast there. also over flowing this evening. water reaching as high as the middle of the trunks of some trees there. now, a state of emergency has been declared in el dorado county near lake tahoe. that's due to damaged bridges and roads because the snow, heavy snow has been slamming the area all day. this is lake tahoe that you're looking at right there. there is a blizzard warning in effect through wednesday. we're talking about whiteout conditions, which have i-80 completely shut down between colfax and nevada. >> all the skiers and snow boarders, i believe it is going to be sunny this weekend. they're saying this might be the most epic day of skiing in years. >> could be huge for them. a lot of people stuck in their house right now. i did get a few pictures where the snow is actually almost up to the top of windows in some cases. i'm going to try and get that on my twitter also my facebook page. of course our immediate concern continues to be the rainfall, falling right now. even light to moderate rain when we have it is causing issues. and you can see we're under widespread coverage of wet weather here across the bay area. it's mainly a moderate rain, few heavier pockets we've seen in our live shots from some of our reportsers. the good news is the back edge of the storm is right here. once this moves to the south we'll begin to get some clearing in here i think by 9:00 and 10:00 tonight. this will look a lot dryer for us. so, we do have some dryer weather ahead to look toward tonight. again, our main concern really continues to be where flash flood warnings are in place. we've had quite a bit of rainfall in los gatos today. that's where our flash flood warning is in effect until 6:30 tonight as the lexington reservoir is spilling over into los gatos creek. so, if you live along los gatos creek, that's where i really want you to be on the look out for possibly some rising water. if you see that water rise, you want to head towards higher ground. this could occur anywhere from los gatos to possibly into campbell, maybe even neighborhoods near park moore. so, again, anyone near los gatos creek really needs to be on the look out for that. now, at the lexington reservoir, the main reason why this flooding threat is so high is because of the phenomenal jump in the water levels. as we get a look at the reservoir, we have seen this much, a 34-foot gain in seven days. 34 feet of water in seven days and that's, again, why that flooding threat remains so high. as we get a look here across the north bay again, still some rain happening, moderate in many cases, but the ground so saturated it hasn't taken much to set off more flood warnings. i'm basically going to take you to the other hot spots i'm concerned about right now and then we'll get into the forecast. the next one up here is for the corte madera creek. this could produce some flooding. in san ans elmo, also corte madera until 8:30 tonight. if you live anywhere near corte madera creek, also san an sell mow, these will be areas to watch closely. the napa river under a flash flood warning until 8:00. if you're under a flash flood warning it means there is some sort of flooding happening somewhere near the river bank that is close to you. so, you really have got to pay attention to this closely. and if you approach water, you need to turn around and head in the other direction. this is the other area of concern. from saint helena down to napa maybe even into american canyon where the flash flood warning is in effect until 8:00, it's mainly because the napa river will be getting close to flood stage. so, let's take you to the flooding graphics. i know there is a lot of information to go over tonight. it looks like the napa river at saint helena will hit a cresting level here of 18 feet by tonight and then we'll start to see it drop, especially as we head into thursday's forecast. the other zone we're looking at, napa river downtown, up to 25 feet tonight. that is flood stage, people. that, again, is why this is so urgent that you watch it very, very closely. if you're heading to thursday, we'll see things subside for us. the other locations we're looking at, russian have i ever in guerneville, 38.4 feet. that is well past flood stage of 32 feet. we may not see things really recede here until thursday night, also into friday. take you down to the south bay, guadalupe, almaden express way, close to flood stage. dramatic difference in lowering by thursday. we'll also bring you to the san lorenzo river to felton, 17.3 feet this evening which could bring it back into flood stage, and then improvement on thursday's forecast. as we get a look at the forecast, 8:00, the storm starts to dry out here up into the north bay and then gradually we'll start to see it push out as we head into wednesday's forecast. but all of this will mean a lot of sierra snow as we mentioned 2 to 5 feet at lake level, possibly 7 feet at 7,000 feet. let's take you into the extended forecast and you can see dry weather expected friday, saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday. we could probably use two full weeks of drying after all the rainfall we've had lately. so, a lot of hot spots. i've got them all up on my twitter page if you want to go there. you can check them out and i'll have updates throughout the night. >> very good information. thank you, jeff. >> well, a mother's nightmareish morning. her car is stolen with her four-year-old inside. full story of what happened. that's coming up next. ==reveal== a deadly car crash in san jose. a man was killed when his car to happening now on our twitter feed, the deadly car crash in san jose, a man was killed when his car ran into the guardrail on highway 87. happened around 11:30 a.m. near downtown san jose. the chp said the crash may have been weather related. warriors star klay thompson is out tonight's game. he's been sick the past couple game. the warriors host miami at the oracle. over 1,000,000 californians have gotten something that's been out of reach for far too long: health insurance. how? they enrolled through covered california. it's the health insurance marketplace where you'll find a range of plans from leading health insurance companies that offer you the best combination of quality, rates, and benefits. and, through covered california, you may get financial help to pay for coverage. to get covered, you've got to get going. open enrollment ends january 31st. visit covereca.com today. bay mother: someone stole her car wiher four yr old insi. terrifying moments for an east bay mother when someone stole her car with her four-year-old inside. the mom was dropping off her other child, the two-year-old at home in san leandro at 7:30 in the morning. she left the car running with her four-year-old son inside. that's when police say a man hopped in, drove away. he even hit the woman as she ran and chased the car. eventually officers were able to track down the car. the two-year-old -- pardon me, the four-year-old and the suspect. mom and kid are okay. the suspect, though, he's behind bars. >> some of our best eyes and ears are from you. nbc bay area viewers have been sending us some amazing pictures and video. we'll start with this. take a look. marco colon. king tides over flowing in the embark dare owe at mission street. laura sent us this picture from los gal os creek trail almost completely under water. as we mentioned earlier in the newscast, this is caused by the spill over from the lexington reservoir. and in san jose, bob wang taking this video from the los alamedos creek trail running parallel to the express way. this creek normally 10 feet wide. when you see news happening, tag us on twitter or instagram or post pictures or video to our facebook page and we might show it right on tv. we're back in a moment. with the xfinity tv app, anything with a screen is a tv. stream 130 live channels, plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today. jeff, i know you're monitoring a lot of the creeks. >> that's right. these are our top areas where flash flooding could be a concern the next few hours. corte madera creek, petaluma river, napa river, and russian river. great news friday, saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday, we are not expecting a drop of rain and that will help all these rivers to thankfully recede for us >> it seemed like today rained harder. >> it's so saturated, the one to effect for. it seemed like a worse storm, but it's back to back. we're not getting a break. >> thank you, jeff. nightly news is next. as a reminder, lester holt has an exclusive interview with president obama aboard air force one. we'll see you soon. tonight, dramatic showdown as president-elect trump's nominee for attorney general takes on accusations of racism. also asked about trump's comments on grabbing women in that infamous conversation caught on tape. trump and vaccines, an uproar as robert f. kennedy junior said trump asked him to lead a vaccine safety commission. nbc news exclusive, president obama laying out his legacy. what he's telling lester in chicago hours before his farewell address. breaking news, dylann roof sentenced to death for that massacre in charleston. flash flood, rescues, millions tonight in danger.