Editor's Note: This story was updated to reflect the fact that fatality occurred in Portola Valley, not Ladera.

A man died after a tree fell on his car at around 1:30 p.m. in Portola Valley, shortly after high winds and rain picked up Tuesday afternoon, March 21.

Javier Ivan Cruz Diaz, 29, of San Jose, was traveling eastbound on Alpine Road near La Cuesta Road when high winds knocked down a large tree that fell on his car, said CHP Officer David LaRock.

While crews were attempting to remove the man from the white van he was driving, three more trees fell in the same area, barely missing emergency crews and vehicles at the scene, according to Woodside Fire Protection District Fire Chief Rob Lindner and LaRock.

No one else was in the van with the man and no other injuries were reported, Linder said.

Medics pronounced the man dead at the scene after emergency responders removed large branches from the car to get to him.

The west and eastbound lanes of Alpine Road west of Highway 280 to La Cuesta were closed to clear the trees, LaRock said. It has since reopened.

Outages

The fierce winds from Tuesday's atmospheric river put thousands of Menlo Park, Woodside, Portola Valley and Atherton residents in the dark, the latest in a string of storm-driven power outages in the Bay Area in recent weeks.

As of noon Tuesday, 343 San Mateo County customers were affected by the outages before the wind and rain picked up in the afternoon. By 4 p.m., that number was at 46,694 without power, dropping by 6 p.m. to 39,939, according to PG&E.

PG&E said that this storm was the 14th major storm event in their service area in the past 75 days and that last week’s storm was the most significant in terms of customer impact in the Bay Area since 1995.

The most recent outages are widespread, with addresses in neighborhoods across Menlo Park losing power. Several neighborhoods in Menlo Park including Linfield Oaks, Menlo Oaks, Vintage Oaks, Downtown, Allied Arts and West Menlo Park were reporting the loss of power. The PG&E outage map showed some areas, such as Linfield Oaks, had power mostly restored by 4:30 p.m.

The city of Menlo Park reported that its Public Works Department has responded to over 24 downed trees in the city.

About 1,050 PG&E customers in Woodside and Emerald Hills neighborhood of Redwood City are without power as of 2:34 p.m. in an outage that began around 1:47 p.m., according to the utility company's outage map. There's no estimated time of restoration.

Power also went out for about 4,500 customers in the Atherton and Redwood City area around 1:30 p.m. PG&E doesn’t have an estimated time of restoration.

Some 726 customers were without power farther east in Menlo Park as of 3 p.m.

Woodside Fire responded to a pole fire on Glenwood Road in Woodside, according to FireDispatch.com.

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District responded to a downed tree on El Camino Real and Renato Court at 2:15 p.m.

El Camino Real in Atherton was closed in both directions, the town announced around 4:40 p.m., due to downed trees. Traffic was being diverted onto Atherton and Watkins avenues. Additional road closures on were reported on all side streets between Watkins and Ashfield Road, and Isabella Avenue at El Camino Real at 5:30 p.m.

Menlo Park Fire was on the scene of a pole fire on Almendral and Austin avenues in Atherton around 1:40 p.m. The Menlo Park Fire Protection District has also responded to sparking wires down at 190 Fair Oaks Lane in Atherton at 2:20 p.m.

Traffic lights are out at Valparaiso Avenue and El Camino Real in Atherton, according to ZoneHaven, and at the busy intersection of Sand Hill Road at Junipero Serra Boulevard at the edge of the Stanford University campus.

In Woodside, La Honda Road is closed to traffic from Portola Road to Fox Hill Road and on Mountain Home Road from Highway 84 to Portola Road, according to ZoneHaven. The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office reported around 3:20 p.m. on Twitter that Glenwood Avenue between Cañada Road and Hillside Drive in Woodside was closed due to live wires being down and asked people to avoid the area.

SamTrans reported around 6 p.m. that it was experiencing significant system-wide delays due to severe weather and gridlock conditions all across San Mateo County, with multiple routes affected. The public transit agency suggested people follow its @SamTrans_Alerts account on Twitter for updates.

Menlo School in Atherton cancelled classes on Wednesday, March 22, because of a power outage, according to the school's newspaper, The Coat of Arms.

Classes were also not in session at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton on Wednesday because of an outage, Principal Karl Losekoot said in an email.