Showers at our nbc bay area studios here in san jose. But some heavier rainfall on the way. Its not only the wet weather right now but the wind weve been dealing with. Sustained winds out of the south. 15 to about 25 miles per hour. Were continuing to track this storm system and the heaviest tonight thats all throughout this hour. Ladies . Thanks, jeff. Speaking of that wind it has been whipping up some problems. Dashcam video shows a strong gust knocking down a side along the Santa Cruz Mountains today. As the Stormy Weather returns, fema has a stern wantirning fory area homeowners. Elyce kirchner has an important message. Reporter the rain just started pouring down here. With all the record rain weve been experiencing, a Record Number of californians have actually signed up for Flood Insurance policies but fema is warning its just a drop in the bucket compared to how many people should actually be signing up. Lets take a look. Reporter rene is getting a quote to trim four large trees on his property. The roots get saturated and they are toppling over. Reporter with an el nino weather pattern expected to continue he isnt worried about wind gusts toppling over his trees. You never know. We had this creek overflow us one time. Reporter hes considering Flood Insurance for the first time despite being in a low risk flood area. Our area weve been lucky so far. We have this creek right here that overflows. But so far so good. We havent really got flooded yet. We want to make sure that everybody understands you are at risk. Its whether its low, medium or high risk. Reporter hes not alone. Fema Officials Say insurers have written more than 55,000 Flood Insurance policies since august. Translating into a 25 increase. But its not enough. Its a drop in the bucket compared to the large population. Reporter many dont realize flood damage is not covered under the average Homeowners Insurance policies. We hope to see that people take this seriously and take the steps necessary to protect their homes. Reporter and if we use the last major el nino season as a guide, which was 1998, fema Officials Say that the most damage didnt actually hit until the spring. And that damage triggered a federal disaster declaration. Well see what happens this year. Reporting live from walnut creek tonight, elyce kirchner, nbc bay area news. Walnut creek where its really come, down. The wind is creating headaches for travelers at this hour. Flights are two hours late. 70 flights had to be canceled earlier today because of the gusty conditions. You can track the storm as it moves across the bay area this evening. Click on weather on the drop down menu. There youll find the latest forecast and you can watch the radar right on your phone. In other news tonight, they are called patrol specials. They operate only in San Francisco and look almost identical to police. The once profitable profession is now vanishing. The few remaining specials are now suing the San FranciscoPolice Department saying the department has cost them millions of dollars in business. Nbc bay areas pete cerratos has more. Reporter janelle, i spoke to two of the patrol specials today. Theyve been doing this for decades. And they tell me business has been down. Theyre placing the blame on sfpd. Now they want the city to pay for it. The badge and gear look similar to police. You protect and serve basically something similar to the Police Department. Reporter but these two men arent sfpd. Theyre patrol special officers, a part of the city charter dating back to the 1800s. Allen buyer and calvin wily have patrolled San Francisco neighborhoods for decades. You develop a trust with people. Reporter the Police Commissioner placed the officers to a beat that they purchase and eventually sell to someone else before retiring. Theyre paid by the neighborhoods they serve. Businesses, homeowners association, apartment buildings. Reporter but thats changing. According to a complaint filed in january by 14 former and current patrol special officers, sfpd is taking away clients and costing these specials millions. The case is now headed to federal court. If you lose business, thats automatically. Reporter the City Attorneys Office says this is nothing new. Businesses have paid sfpd for Services Since the 1970s. What theyre talking about is a procedure that the board of supervisors adopted in 1973. Theyre estimated to be in the millions each. Reporter thats daniel picante. The lawyer representing the patrol specials. Explaining the value of these neighborhood beats. He also claims the original charter should supercede any ordinance. Its sad to say. But i think the city just wants to have destroy the program. Destroy the retirements and get away with it. Reporter as this case moves on, these two men will just have to put their retirements on hold. Well, i have two choices. Either keep working or just give up and go away. Reporter this suit will take place in federal court and set for march 21st. Jury deadlock. The future unknown tonight for a former San Jose Police officer accused of rape. The judge in the case against jeffrey graves declared a mistrial in just the last 90 minutes. Nbc bay areas robert handa is live outside the courthouse in san jose with more for us. Robert. Reporter jessica, this case always depended a lot on how the testimony on both sides would resonate with the jury. Both jeffrey graves and the alleged victim had a chance to tell their version of what happened more than two years ago. At that time, graves a San Jose Police officer, had responded to a domestic dispute then drove the woman involved to a nearby hotel at her request. As we reported then, the woman was reportedly drunk, spoke limited english, and was in the country illegally. Graves came back to the hotel still in uniform and according to the prosecution graves raped the woman. Graves in his testimony said it was consensual. Regardless. The police force fired him but the two versions led to a hung jury today. And now the prosecution is weighing its options to decide whether it wants to retrite case. Graif graves was not available to get this reaction today. Robert handa, nbc bay area news. On the Peninsula Police want your help to catch a suspected arson icist in belmont. This is a picture ofs suspect. A witness snapped this photo as he sprinted away from the flames. Prosecutors said they also found a lighter at the scene. The fire luckily knocked down quickly, only burning about 100 square feet of brush. If you recognize the runner, call police. Happening right now. Spring has officially sprung giants pitchers and catchers started arriving today in arizona. Theres the manager bruce bochy. Brandon crawford arrived a little early and Madison Bumgarner ready to go with a new haircut and his cowboy hat. Lets bring in ahmed faried. He is live in scottsdale. Ahmed a pretty exciting day for baseball fans. Reporter janelle, a couple of things we learned in scottsdale. Number one mad bum did come with a cowboy hat in tow. Number two theyre already dealing with their first injury. Their manager bruce bochy has a shoulder injury. Its minor shoulder surgery. His arm was in a sling. Good news hell be good to go for tomorrow the first workout. That is a very special time for him. Its such a great time of here. Its a family that at the end of the season we go our separate ways. But its always good to get back together and catch up and get back on the ball field. The first day you get back and youre with all the guys and just in the room again with the spirit, the energy so to speak. Theres a lot of excitement around spring training. All 30 teams think they have a shot at beings a world champion. I love the positivity that surrounds spring training. Anywhere you go. But certainly theres a lot of it here. Reporter one guy we didnt see was one of their big free agent signees, johnny quedo. He is expected to get in sometime tonight and be there for the first workout tomorrow for the pitchers and catchers. Reporting from scottsdale arizona with the giants, ahmed faried, nbc bay area news. Two weeks after santa claras mayor stepped down the Council Member expected to fill his seat. Why some people arent happy about how theyre doing it. To pick a new mayor. The city of santa clara is scrambling after the surprise an emergency meeting tonight to pick a new mayor. The city of santa clara is scrambling now after the surprise resignation of mayor Jamie Matthews. Matthews made that announcement the day right after the super bowl. Nbc bay areas Michelle Roberts is live in front of city hall. Michelle, some of the residents there say theyre kind of being left out of the process. Theyd like their say. Reporter i spoke to many people today. They say they would like to vote. But the city says they will be appointing the mayor likely tonight because of the way to save a little bit of money and get a leader in place as soon as possible. An empty picture frame hangs in the lobby of santa clara city hall. Former mayor Jamie Matthews stepped down from office just after the super bowl saying he wanted to spend more time with family. Leaving some taxpayers wondering if there was another reason for the sudden resignation. The timing of it to not wait for a new election is suspicious. Reporter last night the city council decided to appoint a new mayor at an emergency meeting scheduled for tonight. City spokesperson says several other options were also considered. Whether they wanted to have a special election, put it to the november election, have a mail only ballot election. Reporter she says a special election was rejected due to the time and costs associated with it. If the remaining Council Members can figure out who they want on an interim basis that would make sense. Reporter the new mayor who may be sworn in as early as tonight is expected to be one of the six current Council Members. Some santa clara residents plan to speak out at tonights meeting and call for an election. If this can happen i just wonder what other things can happen without people having their voices heard. I think we should all have a chance to vote on who the mayor is going to be. Reporter if one of the Council Members is elected tonight, likely the city will open up for application for that empty city council seat. Reporting live in santa clara, im Michelle Roberts, nbc bay area news. A slow down on the vta tonight after a violent confrontation. The mckie station in san jose is closed right now after a knife fight between two men. The fight happened around 11 00 this morning. Both men are hurt and are both in the hospital. The station remains closed as investigators try to piece together what happened. There is a bus bridge right now between the penitencia and allen rock station. Riders can expect some delays. Struck on the way to school. Today rescuers in dublin used the jaws of life to pry a car off a 12yearold boy. The boy was riding his bike near dublin high just before 8 00 this morning when he was struck by that car. Police say the drive had just dropped off his granddaughter at the high school and was pulling out of the parking lot when the crash happened. Investigators believe the child may have been riding his bicycle on the wrong side of the road. Then thats when i felt something under my car. I jumped out of the car and moved to the back and i saw the kid underneath my car. What was he talking . He kind of was moving. Reporter the boy is being treated for a broken arm. He also suffered some scrapes and bruises. So is apple protecting your privacy or ignoring National Security . A battle being fought in Silicon Valley after apple refuses a governor order to open up a terrorist suspects iphone. This is leading to protests. This is what the apple store in cupertino looked like just a short while ago. In front of the companys Flagship Store pardon me in downtown San Francisco. Business tech reporter scott budman is live outside of apple headquarters with a fight thats just Getting Started and really has a lot of people divided, scott. Reporter yeah, jessica. There are two sides to this story. On the one side the government that says it wants to use technology to help solve a case. On the other side, apple which says it wants to protect the private data of its users. We bank on them, we post personal photos on them. We basically live on our smartphones. And we expect our private data to stay private. But in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings, the fbi is ordering apple to access one of the shooters phones. Changing the way the tech giant handles security. Silicon valley reaction was swift. Once apple bends for this one device, this one time, thats it. Thats the end of the execute of our devices. Reporter apple ceo tim cook also responded with a firm no, writing on the Company Web Site the u. S. Government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. Its either secure or its not secure. Reporter inside palo altos v vera security, the fbi request is being called a slippery slope. That is a pandoras box that we have to think very carefully before we open. Because once its open there really is no going back. Reporter vera ceo says such a move could compromise security for all of us. And giving anyone that kind of key to be able to get access to that basically is unlocking your entire life. Reporter its the latest fight between tech and the government. One that will be closely watched by many smartphone users. And early this afternoon we saw some tech executives weigh in executives from both google and whats app voicing their support for apple online. Congresswoman zoe lofgren putting out a statement supporting apple. But senator Diane Feinstein said she supports the fbi. Stay tuned. Reporting live in cupertino, scott budman, nbc bay area news. Okay. Thank you, scott. Okay. Lets get a check of our forecast. The rain is definitely coming down in many parts of the bay area, now, jeff. It is. After that dry break we are seeing a lot of oil getting brought up on the roadways right now with heavier pockets of rain. You want to be extremely cautious over the next four to five hours as the system continues to move in. You can see over the past 30 minutes weve seen this substantially step up in terms of its overall size, the rainfall shield that is. Most of the bay area right now covered in at least light to moderate rainfall with a few heavier pockets. What i want to do right now is take you into where were seeing some of the worst right now. That would be slowing commuters down the most. Thats right here throughout oakland, emeryville, right on the 24 corridor through orinda, towards lafayette. This is headed on a clip towards wa walnut creek and danville is. That also includes san ramon as well. Another spot were continuing to watch is right here throughout the southern peninsula. Palo alto, woodside, back towards los altos. While we havent seen too much in san jose right now, we do expect that rainfall to eventually fill in and get you wet. Youre just going to have to wait about another 30 minutes or so in downtown san jose. As we look ahead towards the rest of the forecast for tonight, what youre going to be able to see is through about 10 00 we still keep some of this heavier rainfall with us. So its really all about this evening in terms of picking up some of that heavier rainfall. Once we hit 1 00 a. M. That storm will be pushing off to the south. For tomorrow mornings forecast specifically well start with temperatures in the upper 40s and also low 50s with a scattered chance of rainfall. And through the afternoon tomorrow it stays cool. Temps in the 60s. And keep that umbrella handy. Were going track more of this rainfall coming up in about ten minutes. Okay. You can track it for us, jeff. You can also track the rain with the nbc bay area bay area app. Terry mcsweeney shows you how. Its easy to get connected to the weather outside by going inside to the nbc bay area app on your smartphone. Click on the weather and your own neighborhood to see if its raining there. It givious what you need to know when you need to know it. Im terry mcsweeney. Thats how to stay informed with the nbc bay area app. Police officers spend their days looking for bad guys. Now theyre looking for more good guys. The places the department is turning to to recruit more officers. And then renters in limbo. The reason theyre worried that the new owners of their apartment complex could leave them out in the cold. Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth [train horn blares] to the continent. A new nation. Announcer president s day may be over, but the savings go on at sleep train. Through sunday at sleep trains president s day sale save up to 300 on beautyrest and posturepedic, get three years interestfree financing on tempurpedic, plus sameday delivery, and sleep trains love your mattress guarantee. Hurry sleep trains president s day sale ends sunday. Your ticket to a better nights sleep happening now. Rain spreading across the bay area right now you can track the rain in your neighborhood on our nbc bay area app. Also getting a lot of buzz on facebook. Dozens of die hard fans camped out in San Francisco for a new pair of kanye west designed sneakers. We just posted photos of the lod long lines on facebook. Stay in touch with all our digital platforms. Well be back in a moment. For going near an airport. This we are following some breaking news right now. Busted and booked again for going near an airport. This time its at shigs ohare. Were talking about serial stowaway marilyn heartman. Authorities arrested her today after he