Tonight, we take a look at an innovative program taking flight at one major US airline hoping to tackle the industry’s pilot shortage. Plus, it’s Friday, so we go on the road with an army widow, who’s keeping a long-held promise to her late husband. But first, an extremely rare and dangerous flash flooding emergency has just been issued for parts of California. President has approved a disaster declaration as a series of severe storms pound the state. Seventeen million residents are under flood alerts and thousands ordered to evacuated as overflowing rivers creeks send raging waters across roads and into homes. The storm has already been blamed for at least two deaths. And take a look at this, a small jet skidded off the runway until the mud this afternoon at an airport on the California coast. This is all due to a massive atmosphere river all across from Hawaii, bringing with it heavy snow, torrential rains and life-threatening floods and mudslides.

This is a rare sight. Take a look at all this water flowing from the Folsom Dam behind me. Most of the state was in a drought just a couple of months ago. Now they’re releasing some thirty thousand cubic feet of water every second to prevent flooding we’ve seen across California today. This is what the monster storm is doing to California, rivers of water sweeping through this park, swallowing up a playground. Across the state, potentially life-threatening flooding. Mud, debris and powerful winds are downing trees, the damage especially severe near Santa Cruz where thousands were ordered to get out, roads washed away. The storm is also creating havoc in the mountains. Snow and ice made for treacherous driving along Interstate 5. There were warnings to stay off the roads. In some lower-elevation towns, torrential rain is coming down on piles of snow. We saw that threat firsthand directly across the fire house.