Strong winds and a dust storm brought chaos to Las Vegas on Tuesday, damaging power poles and cutting electricity to tens of thousands of residents. Wind gusts reaching up to 70 mph damaged around 50 power poles across the valley, officials said, according to Fox 5. By 1 am, NV Energy reported that over 6,000 customers were still without power, although service had been restored to around 14,000 others.The National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning for central Clark County around 4 pm, with wind speeds expected to reach 60 mph. One dust storm was reported near Cactus Avenue and Valley View Boulevard. Power lines were down near Sahara Avenue and Atlantic Street, forcing police and fire officials to block off the area. As of late afternoon, Clark County reported 232 outages, affecting over 27,000 people. The numbers continued to change as the situation developed. One of the worst-hit areas was along a one-mile stretch of Tropicana Avenue, where 30 power poles were damaged. The road, from Sandhill Road to Eastern Avenue, was shut and is expected to remain closed overnight. NV Energy said full repairs could take weeks. Businesses along the stretch were forced to close. “It’s devastating. We had just stocked up. I know we’re going to lose it all,” said a man to Fox 5, who runs Chapala Mexican Restaurant. “People aren’t going to get paid. I was crying earlier.” Some residents were not allowed to return home due to the risk from fallen lines. Others were trying to cope without power or air conditioning. Local resident Muriel Cyrus told Fox 5: “I’m worried about my fridge and my pets. We’ve never had an outage this long.”
