Fired in a dramatic involvement of the u. S. Civil war. Im Heather Holmes in for julie. Im frank somerville. It is President Trumps first big Foreign Policy decision a little more than four hours ago the Trump Administration retaliated for this weeks chemical weapons attack that killed more than 80 civilians. Many of whom were women and young children. This is what we know right now. 59 tomahawk cruise missiles were launched today. Tonight President Trump said the strike was against the National Security interest of the United States. And we have late word that the strike has resulted in some deaths. Thats according to syrian officials. Azenith smith is live in the newsroom with how the president justified the decision and the latest on tonights strike. Reporter well frank and heather, the strike severely damaged facilities. U. S. Officials said the russians were given advance warning of the strike and the u. S. Took precautions not to hit any russian targets. Tonight President Trump announced the indication a brief statement from hissest announced in a brief statement from his estates. Reporter it lasted just three minutes, President Trump said it was in the vital interest of the United States to take action against the government of syrian president bashar al assad. In seeking to end the slaughter and bloodshed in syria. And also to end terrorism. The missiles were launched from two navy ships, sitting the airfield in western syria. It was for a chemical attack carried out this week. And more than 80 people were killed, many of them children, poisoned by what is believed to be the deadly nerve agent. Even beautiful babies were crewly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of god should ever suffer such horror. Reporter syria assads denied reports he used chemical weapons, but President Trump says there is little doubt he used chemical weapons banned by the United Nations against his own people. Earlier in the day secretary of state Rex Tillerson expressed what is clearly a shift in the white houses policy on assad. Just days ago the administration said removing assad was not a priority. Now tillerson who heads to moscow next week is appealing to russian president Vladimir Putin not to stand in the way of a u. N. Resolution against the syrian leader. The information we have supports the Syrian Regime on leadership of president baa shard assad are responsible for this attack. The continues of horror for the assad regime. Reporter this is the first strike since that countrys civil war began six years ago. Russia and iran both back assad. U. S. Action raise as the risk of the military confrontation with either or both of those two countries. We pray for the lives of the wounded and for the souls of those who have passed. We hope as long as america stands for justice, then peace and harmony will in the end prevail. Reporter before tonights strikes launched, Russias Deputy were warned of, negative consequences, if the u. S. Decided to take military action in syria. When asked what those consequences might be he said, look at iraq and look at libya. Frank and heather . Monte francis in our newsroom, thank you. The bay area congressman was flying home from washington when the word came from the missile strike. We spoke to him when he got off the plane at sfo within the last half hour. The answer is not unilateral United States action. We should have a strategy going forward, we should go to congress before any further action is taken, and we need to bring in our friends. Right now its not clear what the strategy is. Reporter the Trump Administration has not had a strategy on syria prior to this and he said the American People need to know our level of commitment. Joining us now to talk more about all of this is our political analyst joe tuman. What is the message the president is trying to send with this limited air strike . Reporter the message to syria is to back off or there will be consequences for doing this again. And the the president was very calibrated, i think or the people who wrote the script for him were very calibrated today in making it clear that this was a strike. We have used the word in our broadcast before in retaliation, but that implies something was done to us. It was retaliation for the people in syria killed by this. We have assumed responsibility for taking that act of retaliation. And it is a message as well to the russians as the administration intends to challenge assad in ways the Previous Administration did not even at the risk of a confrontation with the russians. Joe, it seems the speed at which the Trump Administration responded to this caught a lot of people by surprise. What do you make of that . Ive been watching washington for a long time. I have a little healthy skepticism about this. This is a president misdirecting people away from russian interference and the linkage between the Trump Campaign and the white house and russia. On one level you could make something of this by saying it is a very convenient way to do the right thing for the wrong reasons and maybe the motive is a political payback that you get. Now you can make the argument the russians arent manipulating me because i challenged them in syria. But i also think at the same time that doing nothing in this situation allows it to continue. I am a little skeptical. Children have been killed and women and innocent people and the rest of it have been going on for many years. As a candidate and a president , trump never said anything about that. In fact he said we have no strategic interest. Suddenly this year or this week he had an ephinane. We are going to read a couple of tweets put out today. One of them by congresswoman barbara lee who wrote, this is an act of war. Congress needs to come back into session and hold a debate. Anything less is an advocation of our responsibility. Now House Speaker paul ryan tweeted this. This action in syria was appropriate and just. He continues these tactical strikes make clear the assad regime can no longer carry out atrocities against the syrian people. One more here, nancy pelosi called todays air strike aproportional response to the use of chemical weapons and went on to say the crisis in syria will not be resolved by one night of air strikes. The killing will not stop without a comprehensive political solution to end the violence. Do they have a point . Does nancy pelosi have a point . Should Congress Come back . Well yes and no. In congress, the United States rather we passed the war powers act, a response to what the congress would perceive to be executive overreach in vietnam. It does require the president if he is going to send American Forces in a declaration of war for more than 60 days to actually come back and consult with congress. You have a leash, but not a very long leash. The reason barbara lee was talking about this as an act of war, she wanted to trigger the wars power act. If this is as i characterize it to have a question earlier as being one off, this is just a response to the ability of syria to do these chemical bombings again. And it was a onetime deal. The war powers act is not implicated and in this instance it is not necessarily merited. If this continues into a regime change situation, then we are talking about something different. Congress does share powers, the house and the senate both control appropriation. The president gets a new direction on military stuff. And he cannot act unilaterally and that is what they are telling him. All right, joe, thank you for joining us tonight, appreciate it. Thank you. Be sure to stay right here with ktvu for continuing coverage both on air and online. Well bring you the latest developments from syria as they happen. And now all of this is happening on what was already a dramatic day in washington. Republicans in the u. S. Senate changed longstanding rules to clear the way for the confirmation of judge neil gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Democrats were angry republicans had blocked president obamas nominee merit garland and planned to filibuster gorsuch. With a rule change all Supreme Court nominees will go forward on a simple majority vote. Instead of 60 out of 100 senators. Make no mistake about it. With all the back and forth when history weighs what happened, the responsibility for changing the rules will fall on the republicans and leader mcconnells shoulders. Even some republicans have warned against the socalled nuclear option. They said lowering the bar for Supreme Court nominations would come back to haunt them when the balance of power changes. The confirmation of judge gorsuch to the Supreme Court is expected to come in a vote tomorrow morning. Well there were also major developments in the congressional allegation into russias interference in the 2016 election. California congressman devin nunes announced he is recusing himself. Nunes who heads up the House Intelligence Committee is now under an a ethics investigation that he may have disclosed classified information. Democrats have said nunes was too close to the white house of being impartial. Nunes called the ethics allegations false and politically motivated. We are following other major news tonight. Still ahead a grim discovery in a quiet peninsula neighborhood. A dismembered body found in a home and the person who is under arrest tonight. Plus, major traffic troubles on the bay bridge after a truck overturned. Tonight right now several lanes remain closed. Right now homes are evacuated tonight as heavy rain returns to the bay area. The sliding hillside thats forcing people to leave. And weather is a big deal tonight with a strong cold front moving on shore right now coming up. Well let you know when the heavier rain moves out of town and when the highwind warnings expire. A live look outside right now at a very strong storm moving through the bay area. Wind and rain tonight and there is more on the way. We are already following a report of damage. Well show you this now. Four homes in the Oakland Hills had to be evacuated tonight because of a sliding hillside. These are pictures from Shepherd Canyon where homes on both banning atkins drive was evacuated. We are told the Civil Engineer was being called in to assess the slide. About 20 homes are currently without water service. The strong winds helped take out a tree this afternoon in the marin county town of ross. When that large tree fell over, they took power poles and lines with it. Crews spent hours clearing the and trying to restore power. And this evenings late season rain caught people by surprise near downtown oakland as we saw folks dashing across streets. In some cases without umbrellas. Im meteorologist mark tamayo monitoring the storm. You have an update on where the heaviest rain is falling. Widespread across a good portion of the bay area and things popped up this evening with the rainfall and the strong gusty winds as well with highwind warnings in place as well. Reports of hazardous travel across the bay bridge as you can see the reason why. Take a look at these wind reports. The gusts around 45 to 49 to 64 miles an hour. Thats closer to Richmond San Rafael bridge. So winds definitely ramping up for portions of very strong winds out there. Look at mt. Diablo there. 74 miles an hour. Point reyes, 58 miles an hour, even San Francisco 47 miles an hour. So this has been sustained at least with a wind report all evening long into early tomorrow morning. Thatll be the deal. Rainfall also a big deal. Hillsburg 1. 65 inches. Santa rosa over an inch. Kentfield over an inch as well. Were going to add to these totals right now because were not done with the radar in just a second. Showing you the cold front moving through across the bay area with the coverage out there. Reports of some heavy rain up in santa rosa. All these yellows and oranges do correspond to some pretty intense downpours in the valley to novato to petaluma and out towards the napa area as well closing in on american canyon. Moving the maps to the south there over San Francisco and over a good portion of the central bay, even towards the east bay as well. Moving the maps closer to san ramon right around 680 with more intense downpours across the region. San jose picking up rainfall as well over the santa cruz mountains, still a factor for us tonight with the highwind warnings and the wind advisories to talk about in place until 5 00 a. M. Tomorrow. Gusts could still be above 50 miles an hour. Your full forecast in a few minutes. And a reminder to get Weather Information any time with the ktvu fox 2 weather app. Watch live radar and get the forecast information right there on your smartphone or tablet. More developing news right now. There are major traffic problems on the bay bridge. Two of the five lanes headed into San Francisco are shut down after a big rig tipped over just east of the tunnel. The chp tweeted this picture of what happened. No other vehicles were involved. The truck tipped over just before 8 30 as rain and high winds hit the area. No estimated time for when the remaining lanes are expected to reopen. Now to san bruno where a Homicide Investigation is underway for police finding a dismembered body inside a home. The discovery was made at the house on the 3000 block of Pacific Heights boulevard near skyline college. Ktvu amber lee is at san bruno headquarters tonight. You Learned Police went to the house on a report of a missing person . Reporter thats right, the San Bruno Police are tight lipped about their Homicide Investigation, but neighbors are sharing with us what they know. It is pretty scary. I mean to think that this happened in our neighborhood. Were a nice neighborhood up here. We get along. Reporter in this winter like weather, police made a chilling discovery inside this ranchstyle home shortly after 11 00 in the morning. A human body dismembered and the identity yet to be revealed. Just baffled. Never guess anything like that would happen. This is a real quiet neighborhood, everybody keeps to themselves. Reporter police are gathering evidence, piecing together what happened. One neighbor says she knew a woman named mary in her 70s or 80s lived there with her son david who appeared to be in his 50s. She says they have been in the home for about two years and that she thought they were about to move because there had been a for rent sign posted. Others say they rarely saw the people who lived in the home. They had a yard sale maybe just before christmas and i think we even bought a couple of things. Other than that weve had nointersection with them. The home was a neighborhood eyesore and usually a pile of junk including furniture piled up on the front lawn. Still neighbors never thought the home would be a crime scene. I find this interesting and shocked. Maybe because it is so rare to have it happen in this area. Reporter Police Arrested 50 yearold David Stubblefield of san bruno for the crime, but have not yet said whose remains were found. We live outside the city to be a little more safe and secure and to think that is not necessarily the case is concerning. Reporter i reached out to police investigators, but they say at this time they are unable to release more information. That there may be a press conference tomorrow. Frank . Amber lee in san bruno tonight, thank you. New at 10 00, an emotional meeting in napa tonight over a School Mascot more than 100 years old. Napa high school is poised to retire the indian name and symbol, but many families there are opposed. Debora villalon live for us tonight in napa where the school board heard from both sides tonight. Deb . Reporter heather, it was a study session interrupted by boos and hissing, applause by both sides, disruptive enough that the board president almost shut it down. As people streamed into napa high, students surrounded the logo on the floor. No one walks on the image they say out of respect. When you take away the mascot, you might as well take away the name napa high. Reporter the auditorium was soon packed with many napans with generations of their families attend the school and embrace the mascot. I can not believe they are doing this. Reporter this parent though sat on a Task Force Studying the issue and it changed her mind. I really came to the conclusion that it is the best thing for a different mascot. Reporter we are here to give them respect. Reporter ten years ago native american advocates started pressing napa high to drop the indian. State law now ban such symbols in new schools as dehumanizing. We are not a mascot. We are not here to entertain. An indian is not even a real name. Were not from india. They are hurtful and harmful. And then if it is an honor, why dont they take a picture of their heads to put it up there . Lets take a picture of your head as a mascot. But step away, dozens of alumnis belting out the napa high fight song. So they held this protest before the meeting. I understand the other side because im indian myself. Reporter those who argue wrongs against native americans are in the past. There is nothing we could do about it. We need to move on and try to all become friendly. Reporter f