High winds blew through Butler County on Friday evening, March 13, resulting in thousands of power outages and dozens of wires down, fallen trees and other weather related incidents.

Rob McLafferty, 911 coordinator for Butler County Emergency Services, said at 7:30 p.m. dispatch was averaging roughly 184 emergency calls per hour, a number not including incidents that were radioed in by first responders.

“In two hours, we handled more calls than we usually have in 24 hours,” he said.

Incidents varied from trees down to wires down to brush fires and more throughout the evening.

As of 8 p.m., FirstEnergy reported 14,070 outages, while Central Electric Cooperative reported 3,171.

According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, Butler County — alongside the much of Western Pennsylvania and portions of Ohio and West Virginia — was placed under a high wind warning until midnight Saturday, March 14.

“Damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are expected. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles,” the service said.

The service said winds can be expected between 20 and 30 mph, with gusts reaching 65 mph or more.

The weather service said in its hazardous weather outlook more winds may batter the region on Monday.

Friday night, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced Route 356 was closed overnight between Route 2018/Coal Hollow Road/Sarver Road and Route 228/Sarver Road in Buffalo Township.