children are somewhere out there in the ocean, yanked off the sands of a north bay beach over the weekend by a sneaker wave. their father went in after them. his body has been found. the children have not been found, not yet. all this happening as another storm sets in, making the search even more difficult. good morning, i'm scott mcgrew in for marcus washington. we are going to come back to that sad story in the north bay in a moment. take a look across the bay area. the rain is adding to the dangerous conditions on the

coast. storm ranger is sweeping the skies. meteorologist kari hall tracking every blip. >> yeah, we have seen that rain mostly in the north bay during the morning. now it's working its way down the peninsula into parts of the east bay and getting ready to approach the south bay. but we have also seen some pockets of heavy rain. that has been moving a little bit closer to palo alto as well as sunnyvale, moving to campbell and milpitas, and also some of those pockets of some of that steady rain moving through parts of the downtown area approaching san jose as well as the east bay, especially in the tri-valley, we see the yellows and reds on storm ranger, indicating heavier rain. also the winds picking up. there is a lot more where that came from. we will see several waves of this storm system coming in through the week, but it's churning up the high waves. we could see some breakers again today reaching over 25 feet. very dangerous conditions right

there along the coastline. you coudo not want to be anywhe close to the water. i will have an update as we look at our forecast coming up in a few minutes. >> it's a good reminder. stay away from the ocean because of those sneaker waves. let's turn our attention back to this. this is the north bay. sierra johnson with rescue crews, they are looking for those two children in the ocean. sierra, i know i am saying that wrong. the proper term is a rescue. it is recovery, sadly enough. >> reporter: yes, right now the search is really on. it's a recovery mission for the bodies of those two children. i want to start by setting the scene when it comes to the weather. right now we are in marin county, and we are getting really pelted with rain. the wind is really picking up. if you continue north, it's much of the same with that heavy rain and the winds making it difficult to do that search. we have been in contact with several of the agencies participating in the search, and i did receive an update from the

sergeant with sonoma county pashlgs regarding the search telling me, quote, they have been cleared, there is no update at this time. now, right now we are unsure if he is referring to the scene being cleared, if it even went out, whether or not they were out and the weather was too bad. we are waiting for a little bit of clarification right now into what they are cleared means. we want to walk you through what played out yesterday when those children went missing. now, this all played out at blind beach. that's near jenner. that was when two children ages 4 and 6 were near the end of the water. they went in. they were swept into the ocean. their father went in after them. he was -- had a hold of one of the girls for a little bit of time. at some point he released hold and he was taken further into the ocean. his body swept into the shore shortly after. there were several agencies working to retrieve the body of

those two children. they were unsuccessful. the waves were too choppy and the winds too strong, so they called off the search last night. so that is where we are right now with that sergeant with sonoma county parks telling us that they have been cleared. again, looking for more clarification into exactly what that means in the search for those two children. right now, we know for sure one father is dead and that recovery mission is what we are looking into at this moment. we are live in marin county, sierra johnson for "today in the bay." >> we can see you struggling and hear the weather out there, the helicopter is not flying. thank you. we will keep you updated on the search for the children. in the south bay now an inflatable christmas tree costume worn by someone trying to spread holiday cheer might have spread covid-19 instead. they are trying to figure out. we know a hospital employee wore this costume equipped with a small fan to keep it inflated. the hospital says the staff member did not know he or she

also had coronavirus. we do know a co-worker is dead and dozens were infected at the massive outbreak at kaiser san jose. chris sanchez is live at the hospital. 44 infected. these are the people we count on most. >> reporter: absolutely. if you try to hire a nurse right now, you can't find one. so they are hard to replace. i did just talk with an employee of kaiser san jose who was in the emergency room on that day, december 25th, when that employee was wearing that costume, and he said there was no ill will. he was just trying to cheer people up. we also know, however, based on that gentleman who spoke with me and another employee that there was also a patient getting respiratory treatment in a room that was not equipped for that, and now searveral employees wonr if that may be a factor as well. you mentioned that the woman died. she was an emergency

registration clerk. she died yesterday because of complications related to covid. she was among the 44 staff members who tested positive. all of them worked on christmas day. as you said, again, it was christmas day that that employee showed up in that inflatable costume to cheer people up. santa claire county public health officials looking at whether or not that fan helped to spread coronavirus. again, that person did not know that they were positive for covid at that point. again several e.r. workers told us the hospital should be looking at that respiratory treatment that happened in a room not intended for it. they also tell us they are worried about their patients. >> if we got sick with that minimum protection and the patients have less protection, i am concerned that there might be a big outbreak amongst the patient population and also that they may have a worsening case of this than some of us have.

>> reporter: kaiser administrators say they are calling patients who may have been exposed to covid starting in the e.r. on christmas day and that e.r. is getting a deep clean. meanwhile, we confirmed that several times the county ems was authorized to step in and help transport patients not because there weren't enough ambulances, but because there was no room inside emergency rooms like regional medical center. at one point ambulances were holding patients in the parking lots in the ambulances for up to seven hours. however, the regional spokesperson says that after a really rough few days of that, there were no ambulances waiting for services. today travel appears to be down slightly, so they are hoping that that will contribute to a lessening of the surge that is just crushing our icus and our hospitals. we though that there is never a good time for a surge, but as of yesterday, just 34 icu beds for all of the county, salt lake

county, the biggest county in the bay area and 34 beds. that's for everybody. not just team who have covid, but somebody who has a complication with their pregnancy, somebody who brecks the breaks their leg, hurts their back, they are competing for 34 beds as of yesterday. >> 34. thank you. if you get sick or injured, the chances of finding a bed are slightly better, 8.4% of the beds in the bay area available overall up 5.1% over the weekend. that's an average. but looking county by county, there are no beds available in napa county. contra costa, marin, santa clara below 10%. alameda, san francisco counties in better shape. unfortunately, i don't have updated numbers for san mateo or solano counties. southern california has no room for the sick whatsoever. >> we have been 100% capacity

for weeks, and, you know, the biggest strange is on the icu. >> that was a doctor with the regional medical center in san jose who reminds us those grim numbers don't reflect the surge we expect caused by people who traveled or met with people outside their households over the holidays. it's going to get worse, he says. governor gavin newsom looking at the numbers now. they are not good enough to end the stay-at-home orders. they will be extended no doubt. we will bring you the news conference right here on nbc bay area at noon and watch it on our website or app. new at 11, on the first day of work of 2021, slack is down. many use it to connect to co-workers. there is a full-blown outage including log-ins, messaging, calls, connections, unavailable. they are working to fix the outage. if you are having trouble getting work done, blame the

outage. if you didn't feel like working today, well, you are welcome. stocks tumbling today on the first day of trading in 2021. live look at the big board. dow jones industrial is down more than 600 points at one point, now about 500. we are about to enter one of the most cons sequential, weeks. two incredibly important things will hachlt not a single person knows right now how it's going to turn out. the future of the senate and the future of people's trust in the presidency. president trump made a phone call where he berated and begged georgia's republican secretary of state to overturn that state's presidential election results. here is nbc's peter alexander. >> reporter: president trump on tape pushing georgia election officials to overturn his defeat. >> i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.

because we won the state. >> reporter: nbc news obtained a recording of saturday's entire 62-minute call. the president and his advisors on the line complaining about georgia's certified vote tally. >> i think you have to say that you're going to redpam init. >> reporter: president trump urging georgia's secretary of state raffensperger raf to announce he is reversing the results. >> the people are angry. the people of the country are angry and there is nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you have recalculated. rep>>ter: raffensperger responds -- >> well, mr. president, the challenge that you have is, the data that you have is wrong. >> reporter: the president at one point pressuring raf ro raffensperger to stick with his party. >> you should want to have an accurate election and you're a republican. >> we believe we do have an accurate election. >> reporter: he cites a debunked conspiracy theory that georgia election officials and a voting machine company tampered with ballots. >> they are shredding ballots,

my opinion, based on what i have heard, and they are removing machinery and they are movingt as fast as they can. >> reporter: the sretary of state's general counsel flatly dismissing that. >> what we're saying is not at all what you're describing. >> reporter: still, president trump threatens the officials that they could face legal consequences. >> you know what they did and you're not reporting it. that's a criminal -- that's a drill offense. >> reporter: vice president-elect kamala harris in georgia condemning the president's call. >> it was a bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the united states. >> reporter: it comes two days before at least a dozen senate republicans all trump loyalists have said they will video vote to reject joe biden's electoral college win demanding congress set up a commission to audit the election. still the republican rebellion splitting the party and causing chaos does not have any chance of changing the results because

enough republicans have already said they will vote to certify biden's victory. >> that's peter alexander reporting. as we were saying, there are two senate elections in georgia. possibly the most important elections of our lifetime. we will take a closer look coming up. operation warp speed to vaccinate americans starting out at a crawl. the shocking numbers on how behind the nation is on getting people to roll up their sleeves. and today on "the kelly clarkson show" star of "chicago fire" taylor kenny talks about all things windy city. find out c he swims in below freezing waters for charity. you can wafrp it right here on nbc bay area at 3:00 this afternoon. tch it right here on nbc bay area at 3:00 this afternoon. california phones offers free specialized phones... like cordless phones,

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and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program call or visit all things windy city. welcome back. the georgia runoff election tomorrow will decide which party has control of the entire u.s. senate. the leaders of both parties are in the state today pushing their candidates. the selection being called the

most important senate contest of our lifetimes. nbc's blayne alexander is in atlanta with the latest. >> reporter: well, election day here in georgia is less than 24 hours away, and with control of the u.s. senate on the line, it's all coming down to tuesday and turnout. that's why both parties are really doing everything they can to make sure that that turn kraut is as high as possible. so over the next day we are going to see the big names coming into georgia. yesterday we saw vice president-elect kamala harris hold rally for the democratic candidates jon ossoff and raphael warnock. today we are going to see vice president mike pence, president trump, and president-elect joe biden all descending on the state in an attempt to make their closing arguments. right now polls show that the candidates are virtually tied in this race that really will determine which party holds control of the u.s. senate. early voting numbers have shattered records. more than 3 million have cast their ballots. all eyes will be on tomorrow to see how turnout is and what happens with the two races. blayne alexander, nbc news.

now to the race for a vaccine. today the united kingdom ruling out the oxford/astrazeneca. bryan pinker was the first to get the shot administered by the chief nurse at the oxford university hospital. the oxford/astrazeneca vaccine is schaeper and easier to use because it does not require the super cold storage needed by the pfizer vaccine. american authorities have not yet approved it for use on americans. meanwhile, u.s. numbers continue to disappoint. the u.s. vaccinated one-tenth the number of people hit had expected to by the turn of the year under the so-called operation warp speed. now, one solution would be to double the number of people getting their first dose by not reserving the second dose for the follow-up shot with the hope and expectation that when you need your follow-up shot, it will be there. there will be another dose available. these numbers show where we're stumbling. the vac is out there more than

13 million doses are available according to the cdc, but only slight more than 4 million americans have actually received the very first dose of the vaccine. again, 4 million vaccinated in a period of time that washington had said they would vaccinate 20 million. to find out where you are on the vaccine line check out our interactive tool. it will ask you a few questions about where you live and whether you are an essential worker. we have a link to it right at the front page of nbcbayarea.com at the top on our trending bar. nbc bay area responds to a peninsula family who had a beef with the food app. consumer investigator chris delivers. >> good morning. let's talk about the family in san carlos. they operate number five kitchen which they call 100% family owned and operated. henry, the chef, called us because someone outside of the family was taking orders.

grubhub. henry said grubhub added number five kitchen to the delivery app without their knowledge or consent. he said that causes problems because its menu changes and grubhub doesn't always keep up. when customers get upset, they gripe to the ings, not grubhub. henry wanted them to remove it. we contacted grubhub headquarters in chicago. a rep responded and wrote, thank you for reaching out and sharing the request. we have removed his restaurant from the grubhub marketplace. this doesn't add a penny to our $4 million tote board but we are glad to help. some cases are just priceless. share your consumer complaints on nbcbayarea.com. click the responds option from the main menu or call us 888-996-tips. well, rain coming down in oakland. looks like outside your window, too, i'm sure. once again, take time if you have got to be out there.

drive safely. meteorologist kari hall is here. >> hey, we have seen these showers moving through the bay area. such a great sight to see because we really need the rain, but it's also kicking up high winds as this storm system comes in. let's get a look at where it is now. check out storm ranger, or mobile dolly partoppler radar. mostly picking up on that rain in the east bay, the peninsula, and finally making it into the south bay. a closer look at the peninsula, you see the rain mostly on 280, anywhere up and down the peninsula, but there will be some breaks in the rain if you are driving up 101. as we head over towards the south bay we have seen some of the showers moving through, approaching san jose, and so we've seen the rain now making it off towards the south and east. the storm ranger tracks that you can see, the rain covering downtown san jose and making it farther to the south. for the east bay, the tri-valley, some pockets of

heavy rain on 680 we are really picking up on heavy rain there where you see the dark greens and yellows. that indicates some rain that at times makes it hard to see, especially if you are driving. and then looking at the wide view of this system, we can see that this has a long connection up, some moisture that extends way out into the pacific. as this moves from north to south, at least we are getting this moving through fairly quickly, but we are also going to see quite a bit of the state getting in on this rain before more waves and more disturbances move in later in the week. taking a look at how much rain we have measured. yerl your this morning in the north bay, so far we have made it up to about 0.5 inch for spots like clearlake. santa rosa is doing the best here, close to 0.75 inch, in between 0.75 inch of rain as well as 1 inch. then up to about a 0.25 inch of rain. look how low the visibility is right now in tri-valley. this is a live look at dublin. if you are heading out for lunch, it's going to be very

sloppy, but in time for the evening commute the rain will start to clear out and we'll see just a mostly cloudy sky as the temperatures cool off. the winds is another issue. gusts in some of our mountains reaching over 60 miles per hour with this system. even into the afternoon it's still looking pretty windy out there with wind gusts at 2035 miles pto 35 miles per hour. calming down tonight as well as the rain moving out. we will see the waves of rain pushing on through, clearing tonight. we are dry tomorrow and there will be another wave and another chance of showers in the forecast on wednesday, but as of right now it looks like that rain chance is going to be very slight and light for the bay area while we are watching the snowfall in the sierra, there is the potential of heavier snow by the end of the week. we look at our forecast, upper 50s, rain today, wednesday, and then again on friday. these three systems moving through before we have a dry weekend. back to you, scott. >> looking forward to it.

thank you. well, they had to delay it once. we are now supposedly 200 days from the summer olympics. the preparations being made to keep athletes safe in tokyo as that city is on the brink of a lockdown. first, happening now, just days after ordering the carrier u"uss nimitz" to withdraw from the middle east, the pentagon has reversed its decision. defense secretary crist mer miller ordered it home last week. that decision opposed by senior military officers due to ongoing tensions between the u.s. in iran. the pentagon now says the nimitz and its task force will remain on station in the arabian sea. this comes within days of the one-year anniversary of the u.s. killing of an iranian general in iraq and within hours of iran seizing a north korean oil tanker. we will be back after the break.

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♪ i swear you hit me like a vision ♪ ♪ but who am i to tell fate where it's supposed to go? ♪ ♪ oh, this is how it starts ♪ lightning strikes the heart ♪ the day has just begun ♪ brighter than the sun ♪ oh, we could be the stars ♪ falling from the sky ♪ shining how we want ♪ brighter than the sun oroweat bread. gathering, baking and delivering the goodness of nature... from one generation to the next and from seed to slice. ♪

media. kris sanchez sharing her black-eyed peas recipe. follow her on facebook, instagram, and twitter. the countdown clock for the postponed tokyo olympics hits 200 today. nearing deadline time for a tokyo olympic organizer olympic committee and other agencies as they try to pull off the game in the middle of a pandemic. officials promise to announce concrete plans in the new year about how to get 15,000 olympic

and paralympic athletes into japan. meanwhile, the japanese prime minister is considering declaring a state of emergency over the coronavirus in the greater tokyo area. remember, you can only watch the olympics if they run at all right here on nbc bay area. a final check of the weather. >> yeah, we are tracking the rain and the high winds that we're seeing with this storm system coming through. this may be the strongest of the three storm systems that we see this week, but the rain is quickly pushing out of the north bay and into the east bay and santa cruz mountains, down the peninsula and into the south bay. we will be tracking this throughout the afternoon as it comes through with those high winds that may continue even after the rain moves out. and if you have the nbc bay area app you can get alerts as rain approaches your location. that's going to be a very useful tool over the next few days as we do have some more rain in the forecast and, of course, we will be tracking that with more updates. scott. >> i got mine running right now. thank you for joining us.

our next newscast is at 5. of course, the latest information all day at nbcbayarea.com. have a wonderful night. ♪ colgate optic white renewal

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