Strong winds gusted through the Santa Clarita Valley Monday, prompting a high weather warning, sending branches and debris across roads and causing a major power outage in the city.

“Yesterday we had a range of incidents,” said Robert Villegas, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. “The largest outage started at 5:12 in the morning.”

The power was restored a little over an hour later, at 6:23 a.m., said Villegas.

Approximately 2,278 homes were left without power due to the outage.

When crews arrived, they found no obvious cause for the outage. Villegas said that this is not an uncommon occurrence in high wind situations.

“A palm frond might get stuck in the lines, and be blown away by the time our crews get there,” he said. “We don’t always find the debris when we get there.”

Santa Ana Winds

However, Southern California Edison reports that they have no unscheduled work in the Santa Clarita area as of Tuesday morning.

Winds were reported in Saugus as high as 71 miles per hour over the course of the day, but have died down by Tuesday to the point where they may call off the high weather warning early, according to National Weather Service officials.

Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, warned of some dangers the wind could cause.

“High profile cars and small cars can be pushed around by the wind,” he said. “Trucks and motor vans especially are at risk.”

Seto also noted that high winds can cause problems with trees.

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“Because of the long drought, trees have been loosened by parasites or just lack of water,” he said.

One such tree tree damaged a Valencia home on Alabastro Dr., near Arroyo Seco Junior High, although nobody was injured, according to city officials. Several cars were also damaged over the course of the day when branches fell on them.

According to an email from Santa Clarita spokeswoman, Mayumi Miyasato, 23 separate trees were damaged by the wind, causing branches to block sidewalks and roadways.

Monday’s weather was a result of the Santa Ana winds, which are seasonally most active this time of year, said Seto.

El Nino, the weather event expected to bring storms and cold weather through the entire southern California area, was not a factor in these high winds and is not expected to reach Santa Clarita until late December, when it will continue through March.