Man dies after tree crushes car in Victoria's Otway region

Emergency services had been called to the Gellibrand area in the western Otways at about 1.30pm when two people were trapped in their vehicle by a fallen tree.

VICSES chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch said crews were working to remove the "very large tree" before extricating the two "significantly trapped" occupants from the vehicle.

Victoria Police confirmed the male driver died at the scene, while a female passenger was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.

"Both are yet to be formally identified and the exact circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated," police said.

"Anyone who witnessed the incident, has CCTV, dashcam footage or any other information that could assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au."

The incident was one of more than 1000 calls for VICSES assistance in the past 24 hours as Victoria is battered by gale force winds and thunderstorms.

Mr Wiebusch said 800 of the callouts related to fallen trees and asked anyone on Victoria's roads to take caution.

"We are asking all Victorians to make sure you are prepared. If you're on our roads that you're alert to the driving conditions and prepared for trees, branches and other debris to be down across our roads as we've seen," he said.

He said there was a continuing severe weather warning for Victoria's south-west including Portland, Warrnambool, the Otways and Ballarat.

"We are also asking people around the south-west coast... to be particularly alert to the abnormal high tides," he said.

"We are already starting to see inundation of low-lying areas in some parts of Victoria."

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Kevin Parkyn said there had been gusts of more than 100 km/h all across the state, with 107 km/h at Portland and 113 km/h at Cape Otway.

"In the south-west we are seeing showers with isolated thunder near the coast dragging those air gusts to the ground," Mr Parkyn said.

He said there would be more extreme wind over the coming days.

"This evening we will see a moderation, the gusty winds will move to central Victoria through to Gippsland and the far east of the state by tonight," he said

"But that will be short lived. These winter gales will continue and we'll see another front move across Victoria in the early hours of Friday.

"The areas we expect to be affected are the south west and elevated areas of Victoria."