While many have been waiting for the power to come back on at home, for small business, five days in the dark has been devastating.

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Throughout the region, it's a story of the haves and the haves not.

At a Beltsville strip mall, almost two dozen businesses are still without electricity and counting up their losses.

Business owner Santiago Flores explained, "...all of my inventory... lots of meats"

At a strip mall on Lee Highway in Arlington, power finally came back Tuesday night.  Just in time for Carolyn Young and her family, who needed   a place to celebrate her 24th birthday

Rosanne Allen added, "We were just going to keep calling around 'til we found some restaurant that's open - but a lot of them are still without power."

They decided to come to Saran Indian Cuisine, where operations were underway for the first time since Friday's storm.

Many customers came looking for relief after losing power at home.

The parents of 5-month-old Aran couldn't keep his formula refrigerated.

"Oh yeah, it was very difficult," Arun Thiru added.

After throwing out thousands of dollars of food, the owners of Thai Thai on Lee Highway were eager to have customers back.

"I was very happy to see it," customer Delia Morris said, "and they were very welcoming to come in here."

For business were power has been restored the rush is now on, as they work to make up for days of lost revenue and thousands of dollars in lost inventory.