Oil prices have plunged more than 50 percent since June, and few areas in the world have been hit as hard by that reality as West Texas, where shale oil drilling has come to a stop.

Oil companies continue to decommission rigs and lay off employees, and small companies that rely on those oil giants to lease equipment are starting to suffer as well, according to a New York Times report.

It is having trickle-down effects on workers throughout the region as restaurant owners expand their hours, car dealerships emphasize repairs and sales of used cars, and individuals cut back on vacation plans and other expenditures.

However, it’s not the first time the region has gone through such a situation, and it won’t be the last. The area is used to the booms and busts of the oil industry, and residents typically have a plan B in place. After all, as one resident said, “you can be sure oil will go up and down, the only question is when,” according to the report.

An owner of a downtown jewelry store, David Cristiani, said the oil busts, along with the booms, are just a way of life in the region. He keeps a graph charting oil prices since the 1990s to remind him during the good times that the bad times will come eventually.

The 1980s were especially tough for the region, with wild swings in the market that caused people in the region to celebrate and open their wallets, but by the end of the decade oil prices collapsed again, leading to businesses shuttered and three banks failing.

Residents have been more conservative since then despite a steady rise in gas prices over the past few years, even though there has been plenty of drilling in the Permian Basin, one of the biggest oil fields in America.

The amount of rigs in the basin reached 570 last September, but since then has fallen below 490 and will probably decrease to 300 by the spring barring a rebound in prices.

The amount of rigs in the area has dropped this quickly since late 2008 and early 2009, when the “Great Recession” was at its most severe. At that time, oil prices dropped from $140 to just $40 per barrel due to the financial crisis.

The Permian Basin is particularly prone to sudden cutbacks in equipment. Many of the rigs in this desert location are used for horizontal drilling and fracking, which breaks through layers of shale to get at the oil. This makes it unlike traditional oil wells. It also means that shale production can be scaled back more quickly, and without a meaningful increase in prices, more scaling back is likely to come.