Businesses affected by wind gusts begin recovery process

Cathy Scott

Tuesday, Aug. 12, 1997 | 10:01 a.m.

Merchants and residents were cleaning up the damage left by an 80-mile-per-hour wind that snapped telephone poles in half, destroyed business signs and knocked out electricity to thousands of residents.

Kilroy's Bar & Grill on Buffalo Drive and Charleston Boulevard was closed Saturday. The bar was reopened Monday, and the kitchen wasn't expected to open until today, an employee said. The power was restored at Kilroy's and a 7-Eleven convenience store next door Monday.

"We should be back up to speed today," an employee at Kilroy's said.

The large sign advertising Kilroy's near the sidewalk shattered when the wind rushed through it. Telephone poles landed on the convenience store roof and a nearby Goodyear tire store.

At Chaisson Motor Cars on Decatur Boulevard just north of Sahara Avenue, a sale tent on the parking lot came crashing down on eight luxury cars -- four Jaguars, three BMWs and one Landrover -- according to owner John Chaisson.

Chaisson said the tent was set up in the parking lot for a car sale. When the wind swept through "it lifted up the tent and the whole thing came crashing down," he said, noting that "we've had tents in the last three sales and this has never happened before."

The damage was estimated at $30,000, Chaisson said, noting that the work would be done in their body shop and "we'll charge ourselves retail prices."

Large trees nearby on O'Bannon Street also toppled as the wind swept through.

Larry Jensen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's office in Las Vegas, described the 4:30 p.m. Saturday wind gust as a micro-burst caused by the thunderstorms.