We have been tracking rain. Where the heaviest is falling right now. Four people stabbed inside an alameda apartment over night. The dispute police say led to the attack. Overnight news from the east bay. How a car crash caused problems for thousands in the area. We are live in the south bay where stores are open early for afternoon christmas shopping. We will show you the sales. Complete bay area News Coverage starts right now. This is ktvu mornings on 2. Good morning. Im brian flores. Good morning. Im claudine wong. We are back on storm watch this back here in the bay area there. Have been several big downpours in the past few hours and mark joining us now to tell us what is happening now and what we can expect later today the heaviest rain on live Storm Tracker 2. There is the live sweep showing you the current rainfall pattern and scatter around parts of the north bay. We will continue to show you this. Just out toward san leandro. Approaching san ramone, a few scattered rain showers, not to major for this part of the bay area. We will move the maps down closer to santa cruz, increasing rain closer to santa cruz and the south bay. You will seat yellows and reds flaring up. Leafier rain, sunnyvale. All the areas, the yellows indicate the increase in the rainfall rates, also shifting the maps here, close in on fremont around stevenson boulevard and cherry street. Especially the darker shades of green. They link up with heavier rain. With the downpours still a big part of the forecast for this morning, impact the roadways, we are out live in the field, we will have updates coming up. People in East Palo Alto continue to watch a levee that flooded homes earlier this week. Despite steady rains the creek stayed quiet. Crews stacked sandbags on the levee. Flooding damaged seven homes and one is red tag. We will show you new video we just got. There is a winter storm warning and you can see caltrans crews trying to keep that roadway clear. Higher elevations are seeing snow showers and chain controls in place, two to five inches of snow are expected throughout the day. Yesterday a huge traffic jam on interstate 80 cause by accidents and temporary shut downs due to the snow affected thousands of travelers. Its all right. I dont mind the snow. I just we have been on the road since six. There were delays of at least two hours with chain controls extending further down the mountain. Travel delays are likely today as well. A family fight turns no a stabbing. A woman stabbed four in alameda. We are live where the crime happened just hours ago. Reporter four people, members of the same family were taken to the hospital here after they were stabbed by a relative and it happened inside one of the units this units. One of those victims was transported to the hospital. A sergeant on scene said this started as a fight between two sisters. The woman who lives in the apartment parenty started stabbing her sister over visiting at the time. Three other family members were also stabbed trying to break up the fight between the two. One of those victims was a teen girl, 14. I have called police, nobody has been able to give me updated information on conditions of those four stabbing victims. A sergeant on scene last night said that the woman who carried out the stabbing has been taken in to custody. Live in alameda. Power remains out for two dozen homes in oakland. A car crashed into two other vehicles before hitting a utility pole. Thats off interstate 580. At first power was knocked out to 6800 pg e customers bopping predicts power wont return until late this morning for the two dozen homes without power. Police still looking for the driver of the first car who fled the scene. Happening now, shoppers are headed to the malls to find post christmas sales. We are live in santa clara where retailers are welcoming that shopping rush. Reporter people have been coming into to check out the early bird specials and the sales. If you look at this right here. This is 75 off. If you look through the store its been open for the past two hours and its been relatively quiet but they expect to have foot traffic pick up as the morning goes on. Customers started showing up when the doored opens. They wanted to beat the rush of people who would make returns and shopping for deals. Its also a huge shopping day for gift cards. Retailers hope customers use them and spend more. Analysts say this last week of december accounts for about 15 of the monthe sales and they hope to go out with a bang. One customer said his mom convinced him to wake up early to go shopping. She told me about the deals. I was like all right we have to go. I need sweaters. Reporter how are you sales . Pretty good. Im liking them. Reporter holiday sales indicate the strength of the economy. A retail report released this week by mastercard showed that these last two months before christmas were the weakest since 2008 and that is what is helping drive prices down, for consumers. Back out here live, coming up in the next hour of mornings on 2, we will head over to Valley Fair Mall to check out what the traffic looks like there. Reporting live. Ktvu. And speaking of that, if you are going to work or the malls or the mountains, the roads are slick. Lets go to tara. Good morning. We have a lot of spin outs, a couple of them popped up on the chp website. We have one on northbound 101, another 80 eastbound at berkeley curve. Ba aware. We can take a live look at highway 24, this is through lafayette. The tail lights are westbound traffic. Next up a look at this is interstate 880, those headlights southbound traffic. No delays. 280 at split. The headlights northbound traffic toward santa clara. Remember to drive slowly. Reporter having to reframe the live Storm Tracker 2 because of the rain source moving through rapidly. Neat shot here look toward the bay. The bay bridge, cloud cover out there, cloud build up producing the rain showers and here is live Storm Tracker two. Has been busy since 4 30. Tracking the rainfall moving in to parts of marin. Also to the around haywood to the south of oakland. Haywood, union city, about to move into san ramone. Solano scattered rain to report for this part of the bay area. Bulk of the activity in the southern third of the bay area. You can see development out to the west. The yellows and reds, indicating the increase in the rainfall rates san jose to sunnyvale. Out toward campbell, blossoo m hill road. Increase in the rainfall and the possibility of hail with some thunderstorms. Keep that in mind at least in the short term. As far as temperatures, its cool. Mainly in the 40s to around 50. Santa rosa in 40. Haywood 48 and san jose around 46 degrees. Forecast for today, cool showers this morning, we will hold on to the chance of showers right on in to the afternoon with temperatures only maxing out in the low to mid50s. Yesterdays storm, that cold front, today we have the speckled clouds off shore. Thats a signature of cold unstable air and that will sweep in to the area for today. We will hold onto the sun, passing clouds and heavier downpours. Here is the forecast model, 10 00 showing you scattered rain showers, its doing a good job keeping most of the activity in the south bay. At one and also by three this afternoon. The coverage onto decrease, we could have clearing skies by tonight. Between seven and eight. Forecast highs this afternoon on the cool side only in the low to mid50s for santa rosa, fremont and san jose and a look ahead to the fiveday, scattered showers for wednesday. Possibility of thunderstorms, dry for thursday, slight chance of a shower by friday but we bump up the chances by friday night this to saturday and fog first thing sunday morning. Coming up a look at the sierra and more details on the winter storm warning the. Thank you. A deadly storm is battering the south. Where its reached. And why many of you may have to hold off on filing income tax returns if congress doesnt avoid the fiscal cliff. I wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. [ male announcer ] its practically yours. Test drive but we still need your signature. Volkswagen sign then drive is back. And its never been easier to get a jetta. Thats the power of german engineering. Get 0 down, 0 due at signing, 0 deposit, and 0 first months payment on any new volkswagen. Visit vwdealer. Com today. We are tracking downpour across parts of the bay area. Here is the live camera looking toward mount diablo. Take a look at live Storm Tracker two and show you the current rainfall pattern. And welcome back. The president is cutting his vacation short to face the fiscal cliff. Is he leaving hawaii for washington tonight. If lawmakers dont come up with a deal before the deadline your tax refund could be delayed by months. We are live in the Washington Bureau to explain more. Reporter brian the irs said without a deal as many as 100 million taxpayers may be forced to wait until march to file their tax returns. Congress has to vote on the wealth tax and it needs to be adjusted for inflation. Both partisay they would agree to it but its all tied up in the fiscal cliff mess. Tax Filing Season starts next week but the irs would put a hold on that for some. Officials would wait for a deal in the new year instead of doing serious reprogramming to their tax system. Filing would then be pushed back to march for millions. With refunds coming much later than usual. Especially for those who plan on paying off credit card bills that often pile up after the holidays. Now all of this could be avoided a deal before the deadline monday night but some long time lawmakers fear it wont happen, more on that when i see you next. Live in washington. Oil prices started edging up arch the president announced he would return from vacation early so he could work on fiscal cliff negotiations. Crude oil sells for almost 91 a barrel up nearly two dollars a barrel. Its expected to increase as hope rises that a budget deal can be reached before the deadline and that could keep the economy growing while no agreement may put the United States back into recession. Several states are under blizzard warning this morning. This video is from little rock arkansas where a heavy snowstorm hit late last night and its not the only thing causing problems. Ed payne shows us the damage cause by tornadoes. Look. Thats a tornado. Wow. Reporter skies over mobile turned ominous as the storms approached. Homes, businesses and churches were damaged and residents ran for cover as it touched down. We stepped out and you could see it forming, doing its thing and then it came. I prayed to god as loud as i could and i was just praying for my safety and i knew that the truck was shaking. I just prayed that the truck stayed put and that god would protect me and the ones in the store. Reporter warnings blaired as Severe Weather moved through. Right there. Reporter many grabbed cameras to catch what appeared to be funnel clouds forming. We have to hurry and get past. Reporter power firms say the winds knocked out power to more than 20,000 across the state. Damage was widespread. Is there were more than 30 reports of tornadoes. The day got off to a rough start in oklahoma. More than 20 vehicles were involved in an Early Morning accident that shut down interstate 40 just outside oklahoma city. The Officials Say at least ten people were taken to hospitals. Texas got a double dose of bad weather. A 25yearold man was killed near houston after a tree fell unon his truck. Snow covered the ground in longview and turned dallas into a winter wonderful land. Blizzard warnings stretched from arkansas to pennsylvania. People flying home after christmas may be stranded. That storm is disrupting travel plans for airline passengers. Snow, thunderstorms, sleet, tornadoes and high winds have grounded plains across the central United States. Thats affected flights along both coasts. Delays wracked up from dallas to new york. More than 400 flights were canceled by this morning. New this morning a major blow to the government of syria. The general of military police appeared on Television Last night and announced he was defecting and joining the rebels. While dozens of generals have left since the crisis started in march of last year he is one of the highest ranking officers to abandon the government. Senate taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a United States base in afghanistan. Officials say a car bomb went off at the gates of camp chapman. It killed a Security Guard and two drivers. It injured six civilians. The base has been targeted by attacks in the past. Egypt has a new constitution. The president signed it into law. More than ten million voted to support it but more than two thirds did not participate. Critics say it passed to quickly. Human rights watch said it protects some rights but undermines others. Russias president could soon decide if americans should be ban from adopting russian children. The government voted in favor of such a ban. Russian activists say it deprives children of the chance to leave orphanages. Its a response to a United States law calling for sanctions against russia. Today marks the 8th anniversary of the quake and tsunami. Survivors held prayer services. The un called it the worst Natural Disaster to hit thailand. Tsunamis went through 14 countries. 200,000 people died. We are back on storm watch this day after christmas. Mark is tracking a fast moving storm that has produced plenty of rain. And we check the return polesis of major stores. What you need to know before you return that unwanted gift. Here is a look at bridge. You can see its wet. We will let you know where we had spin outs this morning coming up next. This is known as boxes day in places like canada. Its become a huge shopping day similar to black friday here in the United States. The malls in england and canada are already packed with shoppers. Box ifing day has been a National Holiday in england since 1871 and back then the british would celebrate with fox hunt. Now that the gifts unwrapped and sorted in to the piles of perfect and maybe needs to be exchanged. Before you head to the Customer Service count year at any store you want to check the policy. Walmart has one of the most generous taking almost all items for 90 days. The exception for a lot of stores, electronics. Many items its a lot simpler if the giver also included a gift receipt. Harder to deal with without a receipt. They want to just give you a credit because if you get something with a lower price its different. Some People Choose to avoid returns and exchanges all together. They take all things and regift them or donate them. Stanford fans heading to this years rose bowl game to seat cardinals battle wisconsin will find the stadium having a face lift. The big renovation project is taking longer than expected. The price tag has now gone to more than 180 million. The project managers say it wont be done until 2015. San jose state will play in the military bowl tomorrow. The spartans high scoring offense will face bowling green. Thats a team that ranks 7th in defense. San jose has had a hard time playing with other high ranked defense this is season. Still experts are predicting they will get the win. The military bowl is set to kick off tomorrow at noon. Lets go back out to tara for sal this morning and i know we have had minor problems, things are wet. How does it look to you . Reporter the rain has caused a couple of problems in the napa area. Lots of fallen trees, we have trees blocking roadways up there. Just be careful when you are out and about especially on the country roads, lets go over to the maps where we can show you where we have a fallen tree at bear creek road. This is sort of off the beaten path. Also an accident. Highway 24 westbound. Also we will watch that for you. Up next a look at the toll plaza. You can see traffic is slowing in to the city. We were sort of keeping our fingers crossed it would stay this way and it has. No metering lights. 280, those headlights on the bottom portion of the screen are northbound toward santa clara. Traffic is looking good. Good morning to you. We are taking a live look outside where we have been dealing rain out there. Here is the live camera looking toward San Francisco. A few breaks in the clouds but those rain source moving through rapidly across the bay area. Still the case right now. Here we go with the maps showing you the live sweeps. You can seat enhancement in parts of the north bay. Rainfall picking up south of nevado, those darker shades of green. Even the yellows indicate the increase in rainfall rates. We will shift the maps, slow you more activity around the bay, not as much here but down toward pillar point for Half Moon Bay and around the fremont area and parts of the east bay. This activity knocking on the doorsteps of livermore. Wet pave helicopter on interstate 580. Most of the activity in the south bay with the rainfall rates picking up for this part of the bay area. Out toward saratoga. You can see the rainfall rate over an inch an hour. Thats the estimate with the radar and the closer inspection toward saratoga. Around campbell. Around loss g atos. Thats heavy rain out toward 17 as you can pick out here and we will continue to move the maps here. We will show you this as far as current temperatures, on the cool side. In addition to the rains, cool numbers out there, mainly in the 40s to the lower 50s. Forecast headlines for today. The showers, possibility of a thunderstorm, a dry forecast for tomorrow, this weekend, we will be tracking showers on saturday, sunday will be dry but on the cool side. Forecast for today, cool showers as we just showed you this morning, the chance into the afternoon, in fact a fairly good chance but the Overall Coverage should be here is the satellite radar, thunderstorm activity, at least the probability, the winter storm warning in place until 1 11 00. Here is the updated model showing you this. Keep the embroil will, the jacket. By 12 00 still scattered source, temperatures 47 to 52 and that chance by 4 00 this afternoon. These numbers onto cool side for afternoon highs, mainly in the low to mid50s and here is a look ahead at the fiveday. Itll be dry on thursday, chance of a shower on friday, especially by friday night and into saturday. We will watch the radar and have another update. See you then. A woman shot