LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Residents and businesses across the East Valley are grappling with power outages following a severe storm that downed numerous power poles.

NV Energy reported that the area near Tropicana Avenue and McLeod Drive was among the hardest hit, with over 30 poles brought down by a tree that caused a domino effect. Across the valley, nearly 70 poles were affected.

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Adam Rush, an employee at Grease Monkey Auto Shop, said, “No, we knew there wasn’t gonna be power today, what is there like 20 poles that are down. So yeah, we knew there wasn’t gonna be any power today.”

Businesses like KatsuCo J Cafe have been forced to close temporarily.

Akio Oka, the cafe’s owner, expressed concern over the impact on his small business, saying, “Big impact because this is a small business. We don’t have any other income and every day sales, we have to pay the rent, the employees, I don’t know what to do.”

Oka is taking measures to preserve his inventory, stating, “I have to move all the meat and the fresh vegetables and some items that we prepare to the nearby house in the refrigerator.”

NV Energy spokesperson Shannon Gregory explained the challenges in preventing such incidents.

“We have already looked into this, and we have addressed vegetation management. We have a line patrolman,” Gregory said. “There are only so many trees you can look at, and there are a lot of trees in the valley, so we’re not gonna catch everything we try to be prepared as best we can.”

The utility company initially reported over 32,000 outages but has reduced that number to approximately 1,800.

NV Energy expects to restore power to most areas by tonight, with the hardest-hit locations anticipated to have power back by Friday morning.