LIVE UPDATES: Atmospheric river brings severe flooding, thunderstorms and landslides to Bay Area

Powerful winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour whipped through Pacifica on Tuesday afternoon.

Powerful winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour whipped through Pacifica on Tuesday afternoon, creating treacherous conditions on both the roads and the water.

ABC7 News witnessed birds struggling to stay airborne and surfers battling rough waves near the Pacifica Pier. On land, crews from the Department of Public Works and the Pacifica Fire Department were stationed across the city, prepared to respond to fallen trees and debris. One DPW truck was already packed with branches and leaves as workers cleared hazards throughout the area.

In residential neighborhoods, the high winds toppled trees onto several power lines, prompting a swift response from utility crews to secure the affected areas and restore safety.

By early evening, the winds calmed, and the rain cleared, offering a fleeting glimpse of the sunset.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday evening issued an evacuation order for low-lying areas along the Russian River, the office announced just before 6 p.m.

"Everyone along the Russian River from unincorporated Healdsburg to Jenner located at 36 feet or below is under evacuation order," they said.

The current forecast predicts that the river will crest at 35.2 feet at Guerneville on Wednesday at 7 a.m., the Sheriff's Office said in an alert.

A temporary evacuation point has been set up at the Santa Rosa Veteran's Hall, west parking lot, at 1351 Maple Avenue in Santa Rosa.

Areas in the order include:

32 Feet - Lower Mill Street in Guerneville and Old Bohemian Highway in Monte Rio.

32.5 Feet - In Guerneville the intersection of Highway 116 and Neeley Road is closed. Mays Canyon Road by the old rodeo grounds is closed.

33 Feet - In Guerneville the intersection of Highway 116 and Drake Road is closed. In Monte Rio Willow and Alder Streets flood. In Forestville Mirabel Trailer Park begins to flood.

34 Feet - In Guerneville flooding begins at Johnsons Resort, Parkers Resort, Creekside Resort and Riverside Park. In Northwood, lower Redwood Drive begins to flood.

35 Feet - Numerous businesses and residences in the lowest sections of towns along the Russian River are expected to flood. In Guerneville Brookside Resort begins to flood. More extensive flooding occurs at Parkers Resort. In Northwood lower Redwood Drive floods.

36 feet - In Forestville, Mirabel Park Resort and Mirabel Trailer Park flood. In Guerneville, Fern Road at Highway 116 floods.

Anyone unsure whether they are under an evacuation order can go to this map: https://arcg.is/1m1mvy

The Sheriff's Office advises people to take essential items such as medicines with them. Anyone who lives above the 36-foot level may have reduced or eliminated access due to flood waters.

Tuesday's Bay Area storm broke two records in San Francisco.

The National Weather Service says preliminary rain totals show downtown San Francisco received 2.53 inches of rain, breaking a daily record of 2.22 inches set back on the same date (Feb. 4) in 1887. 138 years ago!

Over at San Francisco International Airport, it got 1.54 inches of rain. The previous daily record was 1.30 inches of rain back in 1991.

PG&E held a press conference at its San Carlos service center on Tuesday to provide information on how the utility is preparing for power outages amid an ongoing storm that struck the Bay Area this week.

An atmospheric river is bringing heavy rain and strong winds to much of the region, peaking on Tuesday. Additional rain is also expected to continue through Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The stormy weather has caused people to lose power. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, about 27,000 PG&E customers in Northern and Central California were without power.

"We're starting to enter the peak risk period in terms of rain, winds and the associated outages," said Jake Zigelman, vice president of PG&E's Bay Area region, during the briefing. "So we expect that to ramp up over the course of the day and into the evening."

PG&E uses a storm outage prediction tool, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, to calculate where outages are expected to occur.

"It gives us a really good prediction of how many outages there will be, where they'll be located, and the staffing levels required to respond to those outages," Zigelman said.

On the Peninsula, PG&E is expecting parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains and western San Mateo County to be impacted the most.

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 3,429 customers without power on the Peninsula, mostly in Pacifica, Colma, Daly City, Montara, Moss Beach, and El Granada, according to PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian.

In addition, 3,816 customers in the North Bay and about 1,000 customers in the East Bay were also enduring outages as of Tuesday afternoon.

"Crews are out in the field right now responding to a handful of outages that are already underway," Zigelman said.

Customers at higher elevations are more susceptible to downed power lines and outages since wind speeds tend to increase as elevations go up.

Heavy rains can soften the soil where trees grow, weakening the anchor that tree roots have in the ground. Adding strong winds to the mix can increase the risk of trees uprooting and potentially falling on power lines.

"When you combine winds with saturated ground, that's where we tend to see potential vegetation failures, which could damage our assets and cause outages," Zigelman said.

PG&E said it will offer overtime and bring in employees who may not have been working Tuesday in order to beef up staffing levels.

"The way that the restoration process works is first, we have to gain safe access to our assets," Zigelman said. "Then we go out and assess if there's damage, then we'll repair that damage. We'll be dispatching assessment workers and then repair crews as we identify those outages."

Customers should prepare for outages by fully charging devices, having an extra power bank, securing all outdoor furniture, and acquiring a well-functioning generator.

Downed power lines can be deadly if they are still active, therefore PG&E says it is imperative to stay away from them and assume that they are energized.

All customers should automatically receive a notification when their power goes out, an update for when power is expected to be restored, and then a final message once the power goes back on, Zigelman said.