As of noon on Wednesday, San Mateo County had just under 40,600 PG&E customers without power and projected that 80% of the outages would be fixed in approximately one day.
West of El Camino Real in Atherton, an outage was impacting more than 3,500 PG&E customers all the way up into Redwood City's Emerald Hills on March 14. The outage was caused by weather, and had shrunk in severity by Wednesday morning, though it was still impacting more than 1,100 customers in Atherton along El Camino Real, and another 1,000 customers in the Emerald Lake and Farm Hills area of Redwood City.
Around 4 p.m. on March 14, about 2,000 customers in West Menlo Park were impacted by three separate outages, according to the outage map. By Wednesday morning, two of those outages were still active, impacting more than 1,600 customers with no estimated restoration time.
Nearly 1,500 customers just south of Whipple Avenue in Redwood City, to the west of El Camino Real, were without power as of 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, with an estimated power restoration time of 11 p.m. Another 3,000 customers on both sides of Alameda de Las Pulgas in Redwood City were also without power, with no indication of when the power might come back.
Two eucalyptus trees fell in the parking lot of Little House senior center in Menlo Park. A photo taken by MJ Lee shows one of the trees had landed atop a Volvo. Some drivers exited the lot via the pedestrian walkway to Roble Avenue, Lee said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Menlo Park city staff reported getting 70 calls for service related to downed trees, some causing localized power outages and road closures. Laurel Street was closed between Noel Drive and Willow Road due to a downed power line. Stanford Avenue at Louise Street were also closed.
Traffic signals were out on Willow Road at Gilbert and Coleman avenues, east of Middlefield Road in the Willows neighborhood.
The fierce winds triggered several road closures in Atherton, according to police. The road was closed on Emilie Avenue between Valparaiso and Britton avenues due to wires down. Residents of MacBain and Howard were asked to shelter in place, Atherton police said. Austin Avenue between Atherton and Tuscaloosa avenues was closed due to trees and wires down. Euclid Avenue between Polhemus and Stockbridge avenues was closed due to a downed tree, reopening around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
A large tree fell near Portola Valley Town Hall and the Redwood Grove, blocking a path on the property, town staff said. Public Works was set to begin work on clearing the path, and people were advised to cross the field to the main central path through the Town Center.
Also in Portola Valley, a tree fell across the road near 365 Golden Oak Drive with nearby residents asked to detour in other directions along Golden Oak Drive to get in and out of their neighborhoods, according to an alert sent Tuesday afternoon. A tree fell on Alpine Road near Alpine Inn, with one lane of the road closed, and power lines were down on Los Trancos in the San Mateo County/Palo Alto area. Town officials announced later that afternoon that the emergency gate onto Valley Oak was opened.
The Alpine Inn announced on Instagram that due to a power outage, it would close early and reopen Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
Power was available at Town Center and the library was set to stay open until 8 p.m. Town Committee meetings were to be held at the Historic Schoolhouse.
On Tuesday afternoon, Woodside Road in Redwood City was closed from Bay Road to Middlefield Road, near the U.S. Highway 101 interchange due to downed power lines, and the county’s emergency alert system warned motorists to expect long closures and to seek alternate routes.
“Due to extremely high wind conditions and wet ground, trees are falling throughout San Mateo County,” according to a county press release. “Multiple roadways are blocked, and freeway lanes are being affected. Power is going out in multiple jurisdictions as well.”
Caltrain riders were told to expect hourslong delays due to trees blocking the train tracks, the agency said on Twitter. The rail commuter service started running trains on an hourly basis around 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, with servic updates available online at caltrain.com.
Thousands of Palo Alto Utilities customers also lost power on Tuesday afternoon, including about 1,800 in the Barron Park/Green Acres area and around 700 in the Community Center neighborhood.
Cities south of Mountain View was also seeing big impacts, with thousands of customers in Cupertino and Campbell without power as of 12:30 p.m. More than 7,000 customers lost power in Sunnyvale along Hollenbeck Avenue. rned motorists to expect long closures and to seek alternate routes.
"Due to extremely high wind conditions and wet ground, trees are falling throughout San Mateo County," according to a county press release. "Multiple roadways are blocked, and freeway lanes are being affected. Power is going out in multiple jurisdictions as well."
Caltrain riders were told to expect hourslong delays due to trees blocking the train tracks, the agency said on Twitter. The rail commuter service started running trains on an hourly basis around 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, with servic updates available online at caltrain.com.
Thousands of Palo Alto Utilities customers also lost power on Tuesday afternoon, including about 1,800 in the Barron Park/Green Acres area and around 700 in the Community Center neighborhood.
Cities south of Mountain View was also seeing big impacts, with thousands of customers in Cupertino and Campbell without power as of 12:30 p.m. More than 7,000 customers lost power in Sunnyvale along Hollenbeck Avenue, with no estimated time of restoration as of 2 p.m.
