Strong storms have swept through central Kansas, downing trees, generating large hail and knocking down power lines.

The storm system churned up winds of as much as 70 mph Tuesday evening. While wall clouds were reported, no tornadoes touched down. Hail larger than golf balls also was reported in some locations.

At one point, more than 6,000 Westar Energy customers were without power, although the number had fallen to 1,000 by Wednesday morning. The towns of Valley Center and Maize were particularly hard hit, but significant outages also were reported in parts of northwest Wichita and Park City. Because of outages, classes were called off Wednesday for Andale High School and Andale Elementary School.

Westar expected all power to be restored by Wednesday evening.

In Central Kansas, hail up to the size of golf balls was reported in portions of Lincoln, Ellsworth, Saline and Ottawa Counties. In Ottawa County, damaging wind toppled power poles.