Crews continue to work around the clock to restore power and replace splintered power poles damaged by Wednesday’s heavy winds. 

Shannon Gregory, Nevada Energy Operations Director for Southern Nevada, said today that a roughly milelong stretch of poles on East Tropicana Avenue between Topaz Street and Sandhill Road fell during the windstorm. It started when gusts of about 70 mph snapped a tree on Tropicana at McLeod Drive. The fallen tree landed on power lines, creating enough tension to pull down more than 30 poles like dominoes.

“The wood poles are meant to hold up and down, forward, back. They’re not meant to hold any side strain,” he said. “So when you have that heavy side strain, the pole tends to lean, lean, lean, and… it eventually slips.”

This was one of the harder-hit areas, accounting for almost half of the 70 or so poles that fell valley-wide on Wednesday. As of about 2 p.m. today, about 500 customers in the Tropicana area remained without power Gregory said. Around the valley, 1,235 were still waiting for the electricity to come back on down from the peak of about 30,000 as of 5 p.m., according to an update from NV Energy.

“This city has a lot of overhead (utilities), and we cannot replace everything at the same time. We have programs in place where we are rebuilding circuits. I think we’re trying to do four or five, six circuits a year as best as we can. But it takes time,” he said. “There’s a lot of overhead lines.”

Gregory said NV Energy is prepared to respond at any time to fallen poles and lines. For this storm — which was the worst example of fallen poles he’d seen since 2018, when 26 poles along Boulder Highway fell during high winds — he said the utility has stopped everything else in the valley, except for power restoration.

With linemen and equipment operators working 24 hours a day, he said he would be “ecstatic if everything is back up by Friday,” with restoration coming in steps.

Clark County will work with NV Energy to hoist and reset the traffic lights and signage that jutted out diagonally over Tropicana and came to rest on the blacktop of the closed road. The phone and cable companies along with the Nevada Department of Transportation were also on scene.

For residents still affected by the outages, Clark County’s Office of Emergency Management and partner agencies have services in place for those in need. The county has activated all cooling sited to provide relief from the heat. Pets can be accommodated at Clark County Parks and Recreation cooling sites if animals are in appropriate containers.

Also, an emergency shelter has been established at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority in South Hall, Room S2 with parking in the Silver Lot on Joe W. Brown Drive with transportation also available through the RTC. Transportation is available to the LVCVA from Walmart at 3075 E Tropicana Ave. Buses are currently running continuously until 2 p.m.

Animal Protection Services is providing kennel space at the convention center for those sheltering to help ensure people and pets stay together. People should bring an appropriate container/kennel for their animal. Residents in need of medical transport to the shelter will be assisted through RTC’s Paratransit by calling 702-228-4800 and selecting option 3.

Residents with animals other than a dog or cat or with unique needs for their pet can call Animal Protection Services at 702-455-7710.