SAND LAKE, Mich. (AP) — Fierce winds scoured Michigan on Thursday, knocking out power for more than 150,000 customers, ripping a roof off a school and contributing to the electrocution of dozens of cows at a dairy farm.

Wind gusts exceeded 60 mph in western and northern Michigan.

As of late Thursday, We Energies reported 370 customers remained out of service in Dickinson County; 1,047 in Iron County and 203 in Menominee County. Across the border in Wisconsin, there were 228 We Energies customers out of service in Florence County; 366 in Forest County; and 11 in Marinette County.

As of late Thursday, Wisconsin Public Service reported nearly 25,000 customers without power, including 173 in Pembine, 238 in Dunbar, 283 in Wausaukee, 172 in Laona and 1,801 in Three Lakes.

Tim Butler was emotional as he described how his workers escaped after a power pole landed on the milking barn in Newaygo County.

“The parlor was full of dead cows. … It’s a miracle they got out,” Butler told WOOD-TV.

The roof at Edgewood Elementary School in Muskegon County was yanked off, though no students were present at the time.

Consumers Energy reported power outages across its western and northern service territory, with more than 2,000 power lines down.

The utility said full restoration might not occur until Saturday night, partly because winds must drop below 35 mph for crews to safely fix lines.

At least five people died as the powerful and extremely unusual storm system swept across the Great Plains and Midwest amid unseasonably warm temperatures, spawning hurricane-force winds and possible tornadoes in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.

In southeastern Minnesota, Olmsted County Sheriff’s Lt. Lee Rossman said a 65-year-old man was killed Wednesday night when a 40-foot tree blew onto him outside his home. In southwestern Kansas, blinding dust kicked up by the storms Wednesday led to two separate crashes that killed three people, Kansas Highway Patrol trooper Mike Racy said. And in eastern Iowa, a semitrailer was struck by high winds and rolled onto its side Wednesday evening, killing the driver, the Iowa State Patrol confirmed.

The storm shifted north of the Great Lakes into Canada on Thursday, with high winds, snow and hazardous conditions continuing in the upper Great Lakes region, the National Weather Service said. More than 190,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday afternoon in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

At least two tornadoes were confirmed in southern Minnesota on Wednesday, the state’s first twisters on record in December. The small community of Hartland, Minnesota, might have been the hardest hit, with a reported 35 to 40 homes sustaining minor damage and a few businesses severely damaged, Freeborn County Emergency Management Director Rich Hall said. Winds reached at least 110 mph in Hartland, the National Weather Service said.

Losses also included livestock. Dozens of cows were electrocuted at a dairy farm after a power pole landed on a milking barn in Newaygo County, in western Michigan. Tim Butler said his workers at the dairy survived the event, but at least 70 cows died. Dozens survived, but many were “hurt bad,” Butler said.

The destructive weather system developed amid unprecedented warmth for December in the Plains and northern states. That included temperatures that rose to 70 degrees Fahrenheit across southwestern Wisconsin on Wednesday evening. The Weather Company historian Chris Burt compared the heat to that of a “warm July evening.”

There were more than 20 tornado reports Wednesday in the Plains states, scattered mostly through eastern Nebraska and Iowa, based on preliminary reports to the Storm Prediction Center.