Judge Agrees To $10M Settlement In NC Islands Power Outage

A federal judge has accepted a settlement that would allow those who lost power for days last summer on two North Carolina islands to divvy up more than $10 million.

A federal judge on Wednesday approved a plan under which PCL Civil Constructors would pay $8.1 million to businesses and $2.25 million to permanent residents and renters on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.

Late last July, underwater electric transmission cables were inadvertently cut, prompting the mandatory evacuation of 50,000 visitors from the two Outer Banks islands.

The outage lasted from July 27 until Aug. 3. A class-action lawsuit said those on the islands suffered financial loss, stress and anxiety.

PCL denied wrongdoing in the settlement documents. Anyone who thinks they have a claim can file one here.