Wild wind gusts this morning blew through Butler County, snapping tree limbs, felling power lines, rattling windows and loosening aluminum siding.

The wind storm kept municipal road crews and firefighters busy and forced utility workers out on the job earlier than planned.

Between 4:30 and 7:45 a.m., Butler County 911 dispatchers handled two dozen calls, mostly from motorists and homeowners.

“The calls were for trees blocking roads and wires sparking,” said Frank Mattis, the county’s director of emergency services. “The calls started early and kept coming.”

The high winds also caused electrical outages around the county.

As of 8 a.m. today, the Penn Power website showed more than 1,500 customers were without electricity in Evans City, Harmony and Mars.

Fewer than 500 customers were without power in each of Butler, Callery, Connoquenessing, Cranberry, Prospect, Renfrew, Valencia and Zelienople, according to the website.

West Penn’s outage report, on its website, showed 113 customers without electricity in Butler, Prospect, Renfrew, Sarver, Saxonburg and Valencia this morning.

Central Electric Cooperative had 500 members offline this morning, scattered through Clearfield, Saxonburg and Prospect.

Wind speeds before and at dawn this morning at the Butler County Airport in Penn Township were clocked at 20 to 25 mph, with gusts topping 50 mph, according to the National Weather Service.