Years. Especially in the north bay, where people are frantically filling up sandbags after hearing forecasts of up to a foot of rain in the hills which could send rivers right over their banks and possible flooding conditions. Good afternoon. Im larry beil. Im ama daetz. As the storm moves our way, an unprecedented move in advance by bay area schools. San francisco unified is closing al schools tomorrow. The district superintendent says hes concerned about possible Power Outages and doesnt want to risk students or staff getting injured trying to get to school. Its not just San Francisco. Oakland unified School District, all napa county schools are open. San rafael city schools, marin county private and Charter Schools and Dixie School District are all closed tomorrow. Schools in the novato unified School District will be closed thursday and friday. Other closures include saucalit omaren city schools. The harmony School District classes are canceled as are montgomery school, burnville school and forestville academy. Now we have live storm watch coverage but lets start it all over with Spencer Christian and the latest on this storm. Right here just off the embarcadero, suddenly the winds have become gusty in just the lau last few seconds. Heres live doppler 7 hd and it is raining in the north bay, not just Sonoma County now. It has swept southward just a bit. You can see pockets of rain near san rafael, eastward towards napa and around santa rosa and farther north. Let me give you a bigger view by way of satellite of the approaching storm. This is going to be the strongest storm to hit the bay area in over six years, in terms of wind and rain. Some of the risks accompanying this storm tonight and tomorrow, high risk for urban flooding, mud and rock slides, Power Outages, river flooding. Winds will gust 50 to 80 Miles Per Hour at times. We will see up to ten inches of rain or more in some higher elevations. We will start the forecast animation 7 00 this evening. Notice by 11 00, we will see rain becoming heavier and more widespread but still mainly in the north bay. 5 00 tomorrow morning, as the morning commute begins, still very heavy and intense but still mainly in the north bay. It wont be until about 9 00 tomorrow morning we will see rain sweeping southward into San Francisco, down into the peninsula, across the bay to oakland but the most intense of the Stormy Weather will still be in the north bay at that hour. Finally by 11 00 tomorrow morning, we will see the intense storminess reaching through the central part of the bay area. Later in the afternoon sweeping down towards san jose and into the south bay, then behind the front, we will see widespread areas late tomorrow and into tomorrow night of moderate to heavy rain and breaking up to showers friday morning. I will be back in just a moment to show you where we expect the most serious river flooding to be and give you a longer look at the weather ahead. Spencer, thank you. Abc 7 News ReporterTiffany Wilson is live in mill valley which was hit hard by flooding last week. Reporter well, signs show drivers that this area is subject to flooding and there is already lingering puddles from last weeks storm all across marin. Families are doing what they can to stay ahead of this storm. Conversation centers on one topic during afternoon pickup at olive school. Is it really that serious of a storm to Cancel School so early. Reporter fearing flooding and dangerous winds, all classes were canceled tomorrow and friday. Kind of really sad because we dont get to see our friends and play and stuff like that. Reporter the unexpected days off adding child care complications for many families, especially the clarks. Adams wife is in labor right now. Finding day care for tomorrow is going to be rough. Reporter his solution . Grandma. Grandmas are great. Reporter sandbags are already on standby outside the door. We are very nervous it may flood this year. Reporter so many residents swarm this sand pile, the station ran out of supplies. San marino managed to fill seven. Hopefully enough to keep the house dry. Reporter colette brought bags to protect her sons health. Hes a little anxious. Two, three years ago there was water right at his door. Reporter crews worked to clear sewers ahead of the storm while the office of Emergency Services gear up for the weather, and weatherrelated emergencies they expect will follow. Chps advice for everyone in marin tomorrow . This may be one of those situations where its best to avoid the roads. Reporter as you can tell right now, everyone is preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. Tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. Abc 7 News Reporter chris winn continuing our storm coverage now live in palo alto with a look at preparations there. Chris . Reporter good afternoon to you. As you can imagine, many people getting ready by filling sandbags. Take a look behind me. The parking lot is packed. There has been a steady flow of foot traffic all afternoon. Residents coming out here to the palo alto airport to make sandbags ahead of the storm. The sand is out, these bags are stacked. Off woodland and university in east palo alto, crews from the california conservation corps know their work has just begun. Placing sandbags and Building Structures with them. Reporter two years ago this part of the creek flooded big time but today, a coordinated effort to get the word out about tomorrows storm. Informational flyers in english and spanish doing walking door to door. We also did a walk along the business corridor at University Avenue and are making sure that all of the businesses have this flyer in their windows. Reporter Carol Fredrickson with the Santa Clara ValleyWater District says her team is ready. They hope to prevent a repeat of flooding in years past. We have been removing sediment, any blockages, and we have done some erosion repairs. Reporter these neighbors spent part of their afternoon at Corporation Yard doing some work now to keep the water out of their homes. Its better to be safe than sorry, so take 15 minutes out of your day, come with your husband, your children, and just have a little adventure and find out how to fill a sandbag. Reporter not taking any chances in the battle against mother nature. Officials recommend that you bring your own shovel if possible. We have been told that all sandbag stations operated by the valley Water District including this one will stay open around the clock throughout the storm. Chris winn, abc 7 news. Thank you, chris. Pg e is gearing up its high Tech Command Center in fremont and moving tons of equipment into place all around the bay area in preparation for this coming storm. That includes hundreds of pole vaults and these large transformers you see here. They will be used to repair any damaged ones. The utility expects dozens of power lines to come down in this storm and are warning customers there will be outages. This storm were expecting winds up to 70 Miles Per Hour which is significantly more than what we had in 2008. Pg e says it could take them hours to reach some areas. They advise having three things ready, flashlights, a battery operated radio and extra batteries. Today, crews finished filling in a huge sinkhole that opened up in a San Francisco street during last weeks big storm. Workers rushed this morning to cover up a 20 foot crater with dirt and then they put down a base layer of cement and they hope that is going to dry before the first raindrops start coming down. That sinkhole was caused when a water main ruptured below lake street and sixth avenue, the intersection may open to traffic later today. The approaching storm is causing high surf along the coast. Ocean beach is already seeing 10 to 15 foot waves. Along the san mateo coast the waves are closer to 20 feet high. This morning, people headed out to see those waves crash against the shore. Powerful waves will continue until friday. Santa clara county is encouraging residents to sign up for emergency alerts ahead of this storm thats coming in. Alert scc allows people to get warnings sent to their cell phone, mobile device or their email. Officials will also be able to reach people to give them information in an emergency situation. All you have to do signs up, go to a link on our website, abc7news. Com. Also, this word from the airlines, call ahead if you are flying today or perhaps picking somebody up at the airport. Sfo has already canceled 25 flights tomorrow in anticipation of this storm. Some carriers, including virgin america, are allowing passengers to reschedule their flights without any extra fees so make sure you do call ahead. Join us a half hour early tomorrow morning at 4 00 a. M. To get full coverage of this storm. Get up to the minute weather and traffic conditions where you live with the abc 7 news morning team. Thats starting at 4 00 a. M. Tomorrow. On to the protests that are sweeping the nation today. Dozens of uc berkeley law students staged a diein. The students laid down for 15 and a half minutes. The demonstration was to honor Michael Brown and eric garner, who died at the hands of Police Officers. Only students of color were allowed to lay down. White students watched and held hands in solidarity. The law students say they are going to fight for reforms to the criminal justice system. In oakland, a different type of demonstration took place. Abc 7 News ReporterAmy Hollyfield with the story. Reporter this group of White Oakland residents has been angry ever since the recent decisions not to indict two White Police Officers in the deaths of two black men. They have been meeting and holding vigils in their oakland neighborhood. But today, they changed tactics and decided to block the Federal Building in downtown oakland with their message. I feel really good that we have come out. I think that white people need to speak up for racial justice. It cant change without white people being involved and partnering with black people. Reporter security locked the doors to the buildings main entrance, forcing employees to find another way in. Some seemed agitated. Others appreciated the activists stance. This group hopes federal officials get the message. The federal government needs to step up and say that our police force needs to represent our communities. Why dont we say that every police force has to be the same ethnic makeup that our communities are . Reporter while they quietly made their statement, businesses in emeryville are cleaning up today from a rowdy night of demonstrations that moved from oakland to berkeley to highway 24 to emeryville. Four businesses in emeryville were vandalized and looted. Police say protesters also smashed the windows of some cars parked in front of homes. Officers say they dont know why. Its totally frustrating. This is something that we dont expect to happen here in emeryville. We are not a focal point for any of this. I understand peoples frustration of things that have been happening in other parts of the United States but emeryville doesnt have a part of that. Reporter back here at the Federal Building, protesters have gone home but barricades have gone up in the hopes of making sure that the protesters dont or cant return. In oakland, Amy Hollyfield, abc 7 news. Still ahead on abc 7 news at 4 00, the coroners findings in the disputed Fatal Shooting of a man by a Richmond Police officer. Also, the updated designs for the new Warriors Arena in San Francisco. It doesnt look like a toilet bowl anymore. New at 4 30, the uplifting message today from the youngest ever winner of the nobel peace prize. 7 on your sides Michael Finney is taking your questions on twitter and facebook. He will answer them here live a little bit laemplt you can contact michael at facebook. Com michaelfinneyabc7. At 4 12, we want to give you an update on the breaking news we started with. 580 east has been shut down in livermore. You can see the massive traffic backup there. There was a major accident involving at least six or seven vehicles. One person confirmed dead right now. Im Spencer Christian. Rain is already falling in parts of the north bay. We expect heavier, steadier rain to develop soon along with strong gusty winds. The latest storm details in just a moment. Another look at live doppler 7 hd which is tracking the most powerful storm to come into the bay area in years. The storm has already shut down numerous schools and School Districts so an advisory, make sure you check with your Childs School for updated information before you send them off tomorrow morning. We have a list of all the closures on our website and you can read all the updated Weather Information on the bottom of your screen because we are crawling it all there for you. Spencer will be along with your forecast in just a few minutes. An unarmed man in richmond was killed by a Police Officer earlier this year and today, an inquest into the shooting was held. Police say Richard Perez was going for the officers gun but perezs family says that is not the case at all. Abc 7 News Reporter vic lee has the story. We definitely dispute that he reached for his gun and that there was a basis to shoot him at the time. Reporter attorney john burress represents the family of Richard Perez, the 24yearold who was shot and killed by officer wallace jenson. The shooting occurred in front of this liquor store in midseptember. Officer jenson encountered perez inside the store. The clerk told him perez was drunk and disorderly. A scuffle ensued outside as jenson was checking perezs records. It ended with a Fatal Shooting. As expected, the jury in the coroners inquest concluded that perez was shot not by accident but intentionally by officer jenson. What burress and the perez family question is the accuracy of the officers testimony on how the shooting went down. Jenson was a star witness at this mornings hearing. He says perez was drunk and yelling profanities when he told him to sit down outside the store. But perez, he says, got up to leave. Thats when the struggle began. Hearing officer a lawyer presented evidence, recounting jensons testimony. He was tugging on the officers gun and the officer eventually got up and got a little separation, very close, pulled his gun out and had it close. Mr. Perez lunged at him, he fired. He came at him again and he fired two more times. Reporter two of the three shots were fatal. A store video shows the struggle but not the shooting. Its onesided. Its like theyre just hiding something. Reporter the coroners inquest did not allow crossexamination of officer jenson or the other witnesses, nor did it make any conclusions about whether the shooting was justified. Burress says all of that will come when he sues the city of richmond. Vic lee, abc 7 news. The Golden State Warriors today unveiled an updated design for their new arena and Entertainment Center thats planned for San Franciscos mission bay. The new images show the 18,000 seat arena flanked by office and retail space as well as a park. The shape of the arena has been changed from what critics said look like a toilet bowl at first. The building is also a few feet shorter because neighbors complained it was too tall. The architect says the complex offers something for everybody. One of the most important things that we spent time thinking about is the way the building acts and feels for the pedestrians on nonevent times. This is an enjoyable active place to be every all day every day of the year. This is a 1 billion project. Its being built entirely with private money, scheduled to open in the fall of 2018. Although i know the warriors owner wants to push for 2017 if they can get it done. Time to turn back to the weather. That storm is approaching. Spencer christian is here now. We are feeling the effects of this storm already. Heres live doppler 7 hd. You can see that rain is falling in the north bay, all across north bay, as a matter of fact, and we have little areas of what looks like moderate to heavy rain just beginning to push onshore near point reyes. It will get wetter as the night goes on. Wind gusty in many locations, 28 at sfo, 26, half moon bay. They will get a lot gustier overnight. Heres the wind gust animation. By 11 00 tonight we will see gusts near 40 Miles Per Hour at San Francisco and half moon bay, 46 Miles Per Hour at point reyes. Then into the overnight hours, 62 mile per hour gusts, nearly 45 Miles Per Hour at San Francisco oakland and half moon bay. At 8 00 tomorrow morning, perhaps the st