PITTSBURGH — Gusty winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike killed a Western Pennsylvania man who was helping to remove a large tree from a house.

The Venango County coroner says 46-year-old Brendan Beck was killed Sunday night when a gust of wind caused a branch from a nearby tree to fall on him in Oil City.

Wind gusts up to 79 mph downed power lines and trees, closing roads and delaying or closing scores of schools in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Power companies are reporting about 126,000 customers without electricity.

The areas with the most widespread outages are north and northeast of the city.

The National Weather Service says the winds came from Ike's remnants interacting with a cold front.