Although most weather prognosticators were telling residents here they would get a good dose of rain and nothing more once Tropical Storm Hermine moved on shore south of Brownsville, the Labor Day holiday ended with not only heavy rains, but strong gusts of wind that left thousands without electricity in the Kingsville-Bishop area and throughout the Coastal Bend.

The tropical storm damaged some residential and business properties and weather conditions and power outages forced schools to cancel classes Tuesday.

Kingsville residents lost the most electrical power in the Coastal Bend Area with high winds and thunderstorm activities triggering the outages.

American Electric Power Texas officials said 14,310 local customers lost service Tuesday.

AEP worked continuously throughout the day and by 2 p.m. Tuesday, 2,709 customers still needed electricity.

Ken Griffey, AEP Manager of External Affairs, said extra crews had been working continuously to restore power.

Flash flood and tornado warnings were also in effect Monday night.

Wind gusts of 63 miles per hour slammed into Kingsville early Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Weather Service in Corpus Christi.

“The strong winds hit the Kingsville Naval Air Station about 5:30 a.m.,” said Matt Grantham, meteorologist with the U.S. Weather Service in Corpus Christi.

Grantham said it was believed that the strongest gusts of wind were initially in Kingsville; however, wind gusts of 70 miles per hour hit Lake Corpus Christi in Live Oak County at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Grantham said possible thunderstorms are predicted for the rest of the week. He cited that Kingsville had 2.37 inches of rain.

“The tropical storm has maintained its strength in South Texas,” he said. The center of tropical storm Hermine hit landfall near Brownsville about 8:30 p.m. Monday. The tropical storm hit Harlingen, Alice and Kingsville. The tropical storm originated in the Bay of Campeche, west of Yucatan Monday, according to Grantham.

Locally, The tropical storm blew down fences, damaged some roof tops, toppled trees, uprooted plants, strewn debris and rain water flooded some of Kingsville and Bishop areas.

Kleberg County Judge Pete De La Garza said Tuesday the Courthouse was closed because of the power outage. However, the City of Kingsville continued with their daily operations Tuesday. Both entities conducted scheduled meetings Tuesday.

Public schools who cancelled classes were Kingsville Independent School District, Santa Gertrudis Independent School District, Ricardo Independent School District and Bishop Consolidated Independent School District, and the Riviera Independent School District. Texas A&M University Kingsville also cancelled classes.

“We just made the decision to close the school because of the potential flooding and loss of power,” said Mary Springs, Santa Gertrudis ISD superintendent. She said the school lost its power about 6 a.m. Tuesday.

“This is in the best interest of the safety of children for us to have the school closed; it’s always better to be cautious,” Springs said Tuesday. She said the area superintendents had been communicating with each other to discuss plans.

Eden Hernandez, Bishop CISD assistant superintendent, said their schools in Bishop and Petronila, did not have electricity. “We were concerned about the potential flooding and tornado warnings and we have many students who live in the country,” Hernandez said Tuesday. Bishop CISD encompasses a huge land area and many of the students travel long distances to attend their schools. He said he had been up since 5 a.m. contacting various people.

Schools were anticipated to resume classes Wednesday.