Thousands of people are without power in Monterey County because of the storm

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION-TV): Thousands of people on the peninsula are still without power because trees knocked over power lines yesterday evening.

Tony Virgil was getting ready to open his tire shop today on Del Monte Avenue until he noticed his power was shut off.

"It happened before." said Virgil. "So, I just assume we're going to be out for one or two hours, and of course it's 2 p.m."

Strong winds toppled over trees Thursday night, leaving a mess on roads across the peninsula. Tony said that this storm has been one of the worst -- especially because it's impacting his business.

"I can't run my compressors," said Virgil. "That's air, it's a tire business," added Virgil. "We're out of business."

Tony said that although he is used to his business losing power -- he never thought of buying a generator but after this, he is considering buying one.

PG&E says 36,000 people in the area lost power and they've still got work to do to try and restore power.

"We're still seeing trees falling and causing damage to our electric system," said Mayra Tostado, PG&E spokesperson. "So, we have 64 different outage locations where the damage is extensive."

PG&E said that they hope to have power restored Friday night, however, a large portion of the peninsula could still be without power until Saturday.