Wind gusts reaching 60 miles per hour blew into the Kingsville-Bishop area Christmas Eve, knocking down electrical power lines and light posts, and leaving several thousand people in the area without power.

The wind storm arrived around 10 a.m. and caused widespread outages across Kingsville and the Coastal Bend area as temperatures dipped into the mid-40s.

According to Frank Espinoza of AEP Texas, a major service carrier who serves around 11,500 people in Kingsville, most customers in Kingsville lost power for around an hour, although there were a few areas in which the power was out longer, stretching into Christmas Day.

Although there were some electrical utilities poles knocked down in the area, including Kingsville, Espinoza said fallen trees were the main problem.

Fences were also knocked down by the high winds, which began to subside on Christmas Day.

“What caused most of the outages were tree limbs which were falling into power lines. This is why we encourage our customers to trim their trees frequently,” Espinoza said.

AEP Texas crews worked throughout Christmas Eve and had most of the power restored by the evening in time for Christmas morning, he said.