Tropicana Avenue reopens after lengthy closure that frustrated Las Vegas small-business owners
Inside Cliff’s Barber Corral in east Las Vegas on Saturday, stylist Devin Ruesch picked up the phone when the shop’s landline rang.
“Barber shop,” he said, though there was nobody on the other end of the line.
Still, just the sound of the phone ringing was welcomed. That’s because before Saturday morning, it hadn’t worked, Ruesch said, after powerful storms that swept through Las Vegas on Tuesday. Winds in excess of 70 mph snapped a number of wooden utility poles in half, causing power outages and the closure of a nearly 1.5-mile stretch of East Tropicana Avenue.
As of late Saturday afternoon — a full four days later — the section of the busy avenue, from South Topaz Street to South Sandhill Road, remained closed with no word on reopening until the Nevada Department of Transportation announced on X that it opened the road to traffic at 7 p.m.
“It was like a little tornado that came through here,” Ruesch said of the storm. “It’s hurt our business here.”
The Western-themed barber shop had two customers early Saturday afternoon, but owner Cliff Wolosin agreed that business has been hurt the past few days.
“I’ve been here since 1995, and I don’t remember Tropicana ever being shut down like this,” Wolosin said. “It’s like a third-world country out here right now. I don’t know why they couldn’t just put those power lines underground.”
A short walk from the barber shop, Wadie Yousif said his store, Tropicana Discount Liquor, has lost a significant amount of business since the storms passed through.
Yousif said he doesn’t understand why Tropicana Avenue was closed for so long.
“I’ve called NV Energy, but they don’t seem to want to help,” Yousif said. “My insurance company doesn’t have this kind of thing covered.”
As he talked, a customer came in to buy a few single-serving shots of vodka. Minutes later, another customer bought a six-pack of Coca-Cola.
But Yousif said business was way down for the Fourth of July holiday, normally a busy day for most liquor stores.
“We’re dying here,” Yousif said. “We’ve lost a lot of business, especially from the holiday. It affects everything. There’s no tourist business right now.”
Yousif also noted that it didn’t appear that anyone was working along the closed stretch of Tropicana earlier Saturday. At the base of a utility pole directly across from the liquor store Saturday afternoon, a generator hummed along, but no utility workers were in sight.
Messages to an NV Energy spokeswoman and a Nevada Department of Transportation spokeswoman Saturday were not returned Saturday afternoon. In a text message, the on-duty Metropolitan Police Department watch commander said he didn’t know when the section of road would be reopened.
Other businesses in the area also have been feeling the affects of the storm.
At the Glammed Pretty Boutique at 3330 E. Tropicana Ave., a worker said the shop’s outdoor flag blew away on Tuesday. Since internet was down for several days — the employee said it was back working Saturday — the owner could only accept cash or other digital payment options.
At the IHOP just west of the boutique, restaurant general manager Tony Benetiz said he only had two employees on staff Saturday because it was so slow. That’s about half of what staffing would normally be, he said.
“We usually get a lot of people going to or coming from the airport,” Benetiz said. “We know because they’ll have their luggage with them, but there’s none of that right now, and there hasn’t been all week. Today, there’s no more trucks here, but still the road is closed. I’ve been checking and checking, but I can’t find anything out.”
Since all the utility poles that snapped were on the north side of Tropicana Avenue, Benetiz said he didn’t understand why the road couldn’t be opened for one lane of traffic each way on the other side.
“I don’t see why they couldn’t do that,” Benetiz said.
In different parts of the Las Vegas Valley on Tuesday, the storms uprooted trees, tore down traffic lights and trapped people in vehicles.
According to NV Energy, about 30,000 customers lost power that day, and more than 60 poles were damaged or destroyed.
Back at the barber shop, Ruesch wondered aloud about whether future storms could continue to cause outages and road closures in the area.
“If they put those wooden poles back up, they’re going to snap, I guarantee it,” he said. “That storm Tuesday, sure, that was a rare storm, but storms do come through here.”
Wadie Yousif is the father of Review-Journal social media manager Arlette Yousif.
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.