By Finnegan Belleau, Spencer Levering
Las Vegas Review-Journal
LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas retirement community with 155 residents has been without power since Tuesday afternoon’s windstorm, a staff member said.
Holiday Montara Meadows, on East Tropicana Avenue at South Mojave Road, has had no power since 3:10 p.m. Tuesday, general manager Adriana Falcon said.
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As of Wednesday at 6 p.m., NV Energy spokeswoman Meghin Delaney confirmed in an email that power had not yet been restored.
The complex’s five buildings lack air conditioning, electricity and power for the elevators, she said, making some residents unable to leave their rooms without assistance and causing a scare for people using oxygen tanks.
NV Energy reported more than 30,000 customers without power late Tuesday afternoon, with about 50 wind-damaged power poles in need of replacement.
Falcon said she has called NV Energy “every hour” since the outage began.
“We are trying to call the residents that we know (who) have family members here,” she said. “That way, they can pick them up.”
By Wednesday evening, power had been restored to all but about 1,200 customers, Delaney said. She said “final repairs” following Tuesday’s storm likely wouldn’t be done until Friday.
Clark County Fire Department paramedics, called in by Falcon, escorted some residents to a hospital, she said, adding that residents with oxygen tanks were getting priority in evacuating the building.
‘It’s really kind of terrible’
Ann DeVere, 83, sat in the senior community’s darkened lobby with more than a dozen other residents as paramedics carried people on stretchers outside.
“It’s really kind of terrible because I don’t think I’m alone in the fact that I was totally unprepared,” she said. “Flashlight batteries were dead; I do know the layout of my apartment, but I was stumbling a lot in the dark.”
Next to ambulances in the parking lot, two charter buses that Falcon requested from Holiday Montara Meadows’ Kentucky headquarters acted as cooling stations where residents could sit and charge electronic devices.
‘Doing everything in our hands to help’
The lack of power also affected workers’ ability to cook meals, causing staff to resort to serving sandwiches and doughnuts, Falcon said.
“My VP is sending meals here, and we are taking our housekeepers, going floor by floor, knocking on doors, doing everything in our hands to help,” Falcon said. “We are just trying to be together, work toward the same goal, which is our residents.”
While first responders carried out residents, landscaper Johnny Galvan watched from the corner of the Holiday Montara Meadows parking lot.
“There was a lot of people that were sick; they weren’t feeling good because of the heat, because there was no power here all night,” he said. “So they brought in a generator to try and keep it going as much as possible, but a lot of people here ain’t able to handle it, as you can see right there.”
‘We are just living every second’
Galvan and other landscapers disposed of a tree that had been uprooted behind a building in the community. The tree lay next to a sidewalk and was sectioned off with yellow tape.
“Surprisingly no one was hurt,” Galvan said. “It was tipped over, just at least 30 feet tall.”
Each landscaper carried bunches of wood scraps and piled them into a white truck to dispose of the tree.
“We are just living every second,” Falcon said. “We don’t know if the electricity is going to be back on in five minutes or not, so we are just trying to figure it out.”
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