Winds with gustiness equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane hit southwestern United States on Thursday leaving 340,000 homes in California without power.

The Santa Ana winds packing sustained winds of 161 kph hit foothill communities in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre California hardest. Two hundred buildings in Pasadena were damaged and schools, libraries and bus service were forced to close.

"Throughout the entire 26 square miles of the city, streets are littered with trees and tree limbs, downed power lines and wires," Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck said, according to LA Times.

At least 450 felled trees and broken traffic lights closed many roads, said city spokeswoman Ann Erdman, according to USA Today. Among the toppled trees were on Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena.

In Los Angeles, 129,000 homes were without power as of 10 a.m. Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Half of south Pasadena were also without water as the outage shut water pumps in city reservoirs.

The high winds that strikes every late fall or early winter reached 164 kph in Utah. It also affected Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

The National Weather Service said windstorms will move to the central Plains and Mississippi Valley over the weekend.

A tree in a neighborhood near the Pasadena City College rests on an SUV and pickup truck after being felled by strong winds on Dec. 1, 2011.