A suspected live wire on University Avenue led East Palo Alto police to block the roadway between Purdue Avenue and Bayfront Expressway. They advised the public at around 5 p.m. to take alternate routes due to the road closure, which prevented access to and from the Dumbarton Bridge via University Avenue, police said.
PG&E placed preliminary blame for many of the outages on the weather.
A tree hit a utility pole on Selby Lane in Atherton, closing traffic in both directions from Austin Avenue to Logan Lane, according to a police news bulletin.
Alameda de Las Pulgas was closed in both directions at Stevick Drive because another tree fell and blocked a driveway, according to Atherton police. Laburnum Road was closed in both directions between Catalpa Drive and Magnolia Drive because a tree was blocking the roadway. James Avenue was closed in both directions at Heather Drive because of a downed tree.
Fallen tree limbs had also blocked a portion of El Camino Real at Atherton Avenue in Atherton on Tuesday, according to Ryan Molinari, who was driving through the area.
A car hit a power pole on Marsh Road, closing it in both directions from Middlefield Road to Fair Oaks Avenue, according to a 1:50 p.m. news bulletin on Feb. 21. By 6:10 p.m., Marsh Road had reopened.
Power was out for about 3,500 PG&E customers in central Atherton on Tuesday, along with roughly 1,000 customers around Valparaiso Avenue where Sacred Heart Schools, and Menlo School are located. About 1,900 were without power near Marsh Road.
The Atherton library was offering limited service Tuesday afternoon due to the power outage, and closed on Wednesday, as were the town adminstrative offices.
In East Palo Alto, multiple outages affecting more than 7,279 customers began in three waves throughout Tuesday afternoon.
Stanford and surrounding foothill areas had 3,366 customers without power. The core campus outage area stretched from the east side of the Oval west to Stanford Avenue. Much of the campus bordering Sand Hill Road to Page Mill Road, bounded by Junipero Serra Boulevard, were also without power. Pockets of the interior campus had been spared.
Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's hospitals and Stanford Shopping Center did not lose power.
A wind advisory was in effect from Tuesday afternoon through midday Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Gusts of over 60 mph were reported on the region's higher peaks.
The city of Menlo Park asked people to report downed trees by calling 650-330-6780 during business hours. An advisory from the city warned of downed power lines and trees due to high winds, and asked residents to put their garbage and recyclable bins in an enclosed area to avoid debris blowing around and potentially causing injuries.
The city of Menlo Park reported several intersections where outages were affecting traffic lights on Tuesday: Ravenswood Avenue at Laurel Street; Middlefield Road at Ringwood Avenue; Willow Road at Hamilton Avenue and Sand Hill Road at Oak Avenue.
Ravenswood Avenue was closed between Laurel Street and Alma Street after a downed tree took down a power line. The repairs and tree removals were being done by PG&E and on Wednesday, the city did not have an estimate for when the street would be reopened.
Other Menlo Park street closures include Crane Street between Menlo Avenue and Live Oak Avenue, O'Keefe Street between Willow Road and Arnold Way, McKendry Drive between Blackburn Avenue and Robin Way and Riordan Place at Coleman Avenue.
Menlo Park recieved 16 calls for downed trees and 27 calls for tree issues between 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 and 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, the city reported. PG&E said that power outages peaked Tuesday night with 62,000 customers affected across the Peninsula.
A basketball game scheduled for Tuesday night at Menlo-Atherton High School was moved to Sequoia High School in Redwood City because of a power outage, according to M-A Athletics' Twitter account. Palo Alto Weekly and Almanac staff contributed to this report.
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