Second Class Action Filed Over Sweeping Outer Banks Power Outages

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A second proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against PCL Construction and its subsidiaries over allegations that the companies’ negligence is to blame for widespread power outages on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands in the tourism-heavy Outer Banks off North Carolina. The 25-page complaint claims PCL Construction is responsible for “significant economic and personal hardship” to businesses and individuals in and around the islands, as well as tourists currently visiting or planning to visit the Outer Banks.

Filed by two charter fishing businesses and five individuals who cite “financial loss, stress, anxiety, worry, annoyance, inconvenience and other emotional and mental harms,” the case claims PCL, while working on the $246 million Bonner Bridge Replacement Project, drove a steel pile casing through the underground electrical transmission system that supplies power to both Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. According to the lawsuit, PCL made the decision to implant pile casings in the area, which allegedly also damaged “one or two” other transmission cables, despite the electrical transmission system and all other utility lines being “clearly marked” on construction plans. The case argues that, to this end, PCL should have known the location of the vital electrical system and been able to avoid causing any damage by exercising standard care and diligence.

“[PCL] could have prevented this catastrophe by using proper risk management practices, reviewing and adhering to drawings and plans showing the location of the electrical transmission system, taking measures to confirm the location of the electrical transmission system, following industry standards, taking measures to mitigate the damage to the electrical transmission system, followed required safety protocols and precautionary procedures, and properly maintaining equipment,” the complaint reads. “However, [the defendants] chose to violate or ignore operational discipline, and to save money and time at the expense of safety.”

The plaintiffs decry PCL’s alleged conduct as “grossly negligent, willful, wanton” and done with purposeful disregard of the rights and safety of businesses, residents, property owners, employees or vacationers in the surrounding areas. 

The power outage, which as of this writing has still not been remedied, comes during the Outer Banks’ peak tourism season. On July 27, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency and ordered the mandatory evacuations of all non-residents from the islands.