Coming. The governor signed a declaration. He asked californians to cut their water use for now. Mandatory rationing is to come in weeks. Were at the worse drought since records have been kept. Reporter the number of reservoirs are at the lowest levels in years. The Emergency Declaration sets into motion 20 steps to deal with the drought. They includes giving the state flexibility. Statewide conservations are logged and additional firefighters will be hired to protect our lands. Debora villalon join us now, and the drought is worse than its ever been recorded before. Reporter this town gets recycled water. Other lawns in desperate jeopardy. All the vegetations around the houses were dying. Reporter the drought of 76 77. A lot of people remember putting bricks in the toilet. Reporter brad davis remembers and tonight from inside the control room at the Sonoma County agency. Weve been ahead of this drought declaration for many weeks. Reporter the Conservation Campaign first ever in winter is ready. Official hose of 2013, a broom. And its not cool to have a clean car. This becomes the official car of 2014. And its going to be patriotic not to wash your car. Any use of water is going to be frowned upon. I only wash the dishwasher when its full. Reporter people are already on board. This professional landscaper expects many clients to do what she has. Replace lawn with plants that are edible and drought tolerable. The guava is sweet. The water that i do use is helping me produce food. Reporter drip using much less water than a Sprinkler System and she finds the lawn isnt minced. They dont really make that much sense. Its hard to maintain them and i would rather prioritize my water use toward growing food than ornamentals. Reporter the Main Reservoir for the north main even more empty right now than in 1976, the alarm is real. Every water agency will gauge when to make voluntary steps mandatory. Different retailers will use different approaches. But youll have some with hot lines that have already been accomplished where people call in and report water being rested. So its time to start collecting water from showers and sinks for plants. Baby boomers will remember this. If its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down. Reporter many of us remember that saying too. But this drought is no joke. Its entirely dependent on rainfall. Debora villalon. This is governor browns second drought declaration. The first came in 1976. In marin county weve learned that residents are actually using more water now than they did a year ago. 34 more. And one expert told us people need to change their habits. We should cut our expectations for what we can do in our homes and in our industry and agricultural facilities for the next year or so. Food prices, expect them to go up as well. Later tonight, getting smart about conserving. How some people are turning to technology to save water. The man arrested in connection with a string of arson fires appeared in court today to hear the charges against him. 48yearold Patrick Williams brennan faces 15 counts of arson. If convicted brennan faces multiple life terms. As he walked into court, he showed no emotion. He is a three count candidate. They acknowledged that home Surveillance Video including exclusive video here shown by ktvu are key elements of the case. Mr. Brennan would gather Combustible Materials in the area of fires and use an open flame device that he had at his disposal such as a lighter to set the places on fire. He is set to return to court in two weeks. The San Francisco 49ers are on the road tonight in seattle. Our ktvu news crews were there as well. Took these pictures as the coaches and players arrived at their hotel ahead of sundays nfc championship game against the seahawks. Whoever wins that game will then play in the super bowl against either denver or new england. The loser goes home. Julie haener and our sports director mark ibanez is in seattle. And when you guys arrived it was pretty much all business. No question about that. But you know everybody cannot wait until this game starts. And were actually making progress because you know what, weve actually got two teams in the same city. 49ers right behind us up in the hotel. The grand hyatt in downtown seattle sequestered and hopefully many are asleep and getting their rest. At around 4 00 tonight, police led a charter of two buses to the hotel. Security guards were outside waiting as they arrived. Wanted to greet them all the fans and media were kept at a distance in a quardoned off distance. It only took minutes for Collin Kaepernick and players to make their way inside. Itll be really sweet if we can beat them up here. Im hoping to get a good glimpse. Maybe a picture or two. Maybe a signed arm or body part who knows. Reporter well no signing of body parts tonight and the players didnt stop for photos or autographs. That did not stop any of us fans or the media to snap pictures. For the most part players wanted to walk inside, go up in their rooms and stay focused on this weekends game. While we were waiting for them to come in on their bus. Some of the security people said that the 49ers specifically asked that they not be bothered by any of the media so they did not do any media at all. But before they took off, coach harbaugh talked to the media. A little short in patience. But talked about how they are the road warriors so far. They have this brand New Invention thats made it really good for us. Called the airplane. You are there, youre back. Wonderful new inif in invention. I feel that our team is ready. Excited to go play this game. Unless i drastically misread our team were ready to play. Reporter all right, that was coach harbaugh of course. And we had a Seattle Seahawks sighting, marshawn lynch, seattle star walked by here about 20 minutes or so ago. And the fans didnt fail to notice that. A lot of seahawks fans in the neighborhood. They were shouting him out but he wasnt paying too much attention to them. 27yearold a cal grad. I wonder if he was wearing his beast mode necklace. You know jennifer montana designed those necklaces. Beast mode is part of the lingo up here in seattle and of course skittles his favorite candy. Thats right. For julie im mark ibanez i will see you later. I love lynch checking out enemy territory. But boy it is cold up there. Lets go now to our meteorologist. Its good football weather though. Itll be a good game. No doubt about that. And what are they looking at tonight . What low 40s. Temperatures have dropped down to the upper 40s the most recent observation from seattle. The 49ers have done a lot of traveling. Green bay talking about Single Digits and windchills below zero. Last weekend last sunday, charlotte lots of sunshine. Temperatures in the 50s. Now our attention turns to the north up toward seattle. Now here is the forecast right now it is 39 degrees. The latest observation coming out of seattle. Well put this forecast model into motion. You will see increasing clouds. There was a threat of rain but all the activity remains offshore. With that we are expecting partly to mostly cloudy skies for the game. Heres a closer look at kick off. 47degrees, temperatures by the Fourth Quarter right around 40 degrees with as i mentioned a few high clouds. The shower threat has moved out of town. But as you can see, temperatures have remained in town. Our 49er coverage just Getting Started tomorrow night. Joe fonzi will be joining mark and julie up there in seattle for an hour long special. Were calling it road trip to a championship. And sunday is game day. You can watch it live right here on ktvu. Coverage begins at 3 00 in the afternoon and be sure to stick around for our point aftershow following the game. This massive tree came down two months ago in a popular park. The fact that its been here this long is complete negligence from the citys part. Why neighbors call it hazardous and the citys excuse for not removing it. We all know about smart phones but only on two, exclusive video of a group of people attacking the munni bus and the passengers on board. The video show what is appears to be a mob going after the bus. Police tell us it appears premeditated and tell us its happened more than once. Patti lee is live in the city and tells us how a skateboarding shop is playing into this investigation. Reporter they told us the attacks caught on camera at this intersection could be part of a rash of a dozen vandalism incidents. The target was always the same. This undercover detective showed us video taken december 20th at 9 00 p. M. Nummi cameras captured multiple angles from this bus as it rolled into the ashbury intersection. You see the guy backs up as if he was trying to stop the bus from going any where. Reporter watch as one guy jumps in front of the bus. Then others pull out spray cans out of their clothes. He starts tagging part of the bus. You hear loud banging noises. It sounds like theyre hitting the side of the bus with unknown devices. Reporter then a second bus approached the group, it didnt stop. But that did not prevent the crowd from charging the bus, breaking the window and tacking it as it passed. You see people photographing it. Theyre all standing over here taking pictures. Thats funny because thats something i would hear about but no i havent heard about that. Reporter this man works at a skateboarding shop. And we learned that theyre part of the investigation. Thats because they were holding a skateboarding party the night of the attack. Theyve had five parties since ive been here and thats the first time ive heard of that happening. Reporter a store employee told us the party was not private so there is no list. Police have said this munni video may be enough to i. D. Some of the suspects. And the tags they left behind may be more telling because they are like signatures that could link this incident to others in San Francisco. Another pedestrian has been hit by a ride share driver in San Francisco. This accident happened about 2 00 this afternoon at the intersection of jackson and larkin. Its the second accident involving a ride share driver since new years eve. Todays victim described as an elderly woman. The driver of the lift vehicle hit a woman crossing the sidewalk. Three weeks ago an oober driver making a turn struck and killed a 6yearold girl and injured her mother and brother. In san jose a teenager riding a bike killed today. The 14yearold girl was hit at about 7 30 this morning at stokes street. Shes been identified as danica carla garcia. The train was taken out of service and about a dozen passengers were taken to their destination by bus. A bicycle ride honored a woman who was killed today a month ago. Watson had gotten off the ferry and was riding her bus home to el cerrito when she was hit by a big rig on fifth and market. She was oe obeying all the lights. She had like 15 lights on the person because she was an amazing person and lived brightly. Reporter riders are calling for improvements on city streets. More bike lanes, better lighting and more training for drivers about how to share the road. Today we learned the death toll from the flu continues to rise in the bay area. Santa clara Health Officials confirmed the h1n1 virus claimed the lives of two women ages 52 and 62. That brings the bay area total to 22 deaths so far this season. Dozens of others have ended up in intensive care units. Whats unusual about this season is really the severity of illness. The number of reports and whos getting sick. Health experts say other wise Healthy People in the 18 to 62 age group are being hit the hardest. They say people gathering this weekend to watch the 49ers game should take precautions. They suggest washing hands frequently and opening windows to bring in healthy air. 45 people including two babies have died from the flu. Those numbers are expected to rise. Officials say they are investigating an additional 50 deaths. The state only tracks flu related deaths among people 65 years and younger. Californias Health Director says this flu season appears to be a severe one. Firefighters say the weather cooperated today helping them get a handle on that wildfire thats burning in southern california. They say the calm winds slowed the progress of the so called colby fire. The flames have destroyed five homes and burned more than 1,700 acres since yesterday morning. The fire is burning in the Angeles National forest. Temperatures in the area today reached 77degree. As of tonight that fire remains about 35 contained. This picture was taken yesterday by a nasa satellite. You can see the plume of smoke stretch beyond los angeles and out over the pacific ocean. And that smoke plume lifting up over the pacific because weve had the offshore winds across the entire state. Were looking for some chains offshore. You can see some storms but all this Energy Heading up to our north. No rain clouds in our area. Right now we have mostly clear skies. Maybe a few high clouds will be approaching the region as we head into the weekend. As far as records for today, another round to report as you can see coming up in oakland. 74degrees and gilroy topped out at 80. With the relatively cool skies. Temperatures are dropping off quite a bit. And get ready for another cold start tomorrow morning. Coolest locations, santa rosa, napa right around 30. San jose 41 degrees. Coming up ill highlight the coolest day of the weekend and were looking for rain in the long range patterns. Another spare the air day has been called for tomorrow. The management district says that stagnant air is trapping pollutants close to the ground so wood burning is banned. This is the 38th spare the air alert of the season. More alerts could be called in the days ahead. A high tech fix for some old technology. Street lights getting a modern make over but new at 10 00, we know about smart phones but what about smart street lights. Ktvus Jana Katsuyama live now in San Franciscos inner sunset district to show us the high Tech Lighting and why not everyone will get it. Reporter were on irving street and you can see the sodium vapor lights. Those turn on by a sensor at the top. These new lights here are led and they can be controlled wirelessly by the flick of a finger. Look up and you will likely see one of the old cobra style street lights. Theres over 18,000 and the Public Commission plans to replace them with these. Led lights. The led light lasts for about 15 to 20 years and it saves about 50 of the energy that a High Pressure sodium light takes. Reporter a move that the puc predicts will save 5 million over three years. The lights can be programmed from dim to brightly and even be programmed with motion detectors. If someone walks down the street or a car drives by that it will automatically dim the light or increase the intensity of the light. Reporter tonight we got a demonstration of the program along washington street. Theres an need for it. Reporter so lights can be controlled from a tablet with a swipe of the finger. And people can report if a light went out. This dog walker says he noticed the change. Theyre on my christmas tree. So it probably makes sense, its the wave of the future i think. Reporter not everybody in the city will have the smart lights on their block. The puc maintain most of the area in dark blue. But other area pg e maintains half of the street lights and they have not decided whether to convert to the system. The puc has planned two demonstrations one in the precidio next thursday. And one here. They do hope to get Public Opinion before they move on the plan. Jana katsuyama, ktvu news. The mayor said the housing crunch is a genuine crisis and he proposed 20,000 new or rehabilitated homes within six years. Additionally, my challenge is to ensure that at least 1 3 of those will be permanently affordable to low and moderate income families. Reporter lee said one reason for the housing problem is the additional of 42,000 jobs. He said this may be the first time in history that job creation has actually been criticized. And he made note of the red tape and regulations imposed on developers who want to build new housing. The mayor also proposed raising the citys minimum wage. Also increasing funding to a level that the mayor says has never been seen before. And he wants to improve services for the mentally ill and homeless people. Mayor lee also wants to add more police officers. President obama addressed a National Security agency Data Collection controversy with a policy speech today. He called on meta data. He suggested a third party could hold the data base while still allowing the government access. He also said he has to consider the danger of government overreach. We have to make some important decisions. About how to protect ourselves and sustain our leadership in the world while upholding the Civil Liberties and Privacy Protection that our constitution requires. The best of the best. The handful of Bay Area Companies just named among the best places to work. Plus a big problem in oakland. This tree fell over a couple of months ago. So why is it still just sitting in that park new at 10 00, its kind of a tourist attraction but others say its a safety hazard. Were talking about a huge eucalyptus tree that fell over in oakland a few weeks ago. It still hasn t been removed. The city has trim some of the branches off but they left the rest of that huge tree right where it fell, Paul Chambers has the story. Reporter many people remember that high wind storm we had back in november. This tree the fallen tree is a reminder of that deadly storm. I was just thinking, what an amazing object it is. Reporter in its glory, this tree stood about 100 feet tall. With a diameter of 25 feet. It weighed an estimated 145 145,000 pounds. When the high winds some calculate at 65milesanhour tore through the bay area, this tree literally ripping it from its roots. Its a total hazard. Tha