High winds this morning are to blame for widespread power outages in Berrien County.

Indiana Michigan Power reported 4,357 customers were without power in Berrien County as of 9:15 a.m. today.

Niles Community Schools Ring Lardner, Oak Manor and Northside cancelled classes today because of power outages, according to Michele Dreitzler, administrative assistant to the superintendent. All other schools in the Niles, Brandywine and Buchanan school districts were open today.

Randy Stevens, Niles Electric superintendent, said his crews were called in at 5 a.m. to deal with an outage at a power substation in the Industrial Park on Terminal Rd. The outage affected the northeast side of Niles.

“Overall, considering what we had so far our damage has been minimal,” Stevens said. “We are sitting real good right now. To the best of our knowledge we have no outages. No one has called in so we are bracing for the rest of the day.”

Berrien County remains under a high wind warning until 8 p.m. today. The National Weather Service is saying remnants of Hurricane Sandy will stall out over Pennsylvania today and a strong pressure gradient over the area will support windy conditions with sustained winds ranging between 20 to 35 miles per hour. Wind gusts of 40 to 45 knots are expected, mainly this morning. Locations along the Lake Michigan shoreline will likely experience wind gusts in the 45 to 60 miles per hour range.