Workers accidentally severed cables that carry electricity to two islands in NC. Why are tourist being required to leave? If they want to spend the night in the dark, why are they not allowed to do so? Tourists are now prohibited from entering the islands. TV stations are reporting that tourists who refuse to leave are subject to arrest. What statute?
I can’t refer you to a specific statute, but the Governor has declared a state of emergency for the islands and the powers granted under that declaration are pretty broad.
This is actually not very unusual, since a state of emergency is sometimes declared for these areas when a hurricane approaches. I’ve had to evacuate twice over the last 30 years. (I am not a resident. Residents have special tags for their vehicles that allow them on the islands when tourists are not and give them priority for some ferry routes.)
From what I’m reading, they’ve brought in generators, but they’re only providing a small amount of power. Barely enough to supply the permanent residents (and then not even air conditioners or hot tubs). Even minimal power needs for the thousands of tourists would be more than the generators can supply. And unless these tourists are camping rough (and few have the equipment to do so), they’re going to be in motels and hotels that are totally dark. That’s not very safe.
Food safety becomes an immediate issue in an area with thousands of tourists and no refrigeration. Potable water may become a problem too.
We had a days-long city-wide power outage a few years ago. There are a lot of issues. They may have emergency generators at the water treatment/pumping stations, but perhaps only enough to supply the bare minimum needs for residents. Without refrigeration, food supply & safety becomes a problem. Most businesses can’t operate without electricity - even restaurants and gas stations. Long lines at the few gas stations that bring in generators. Traffic lights are all off, and police officers have more important things to do than stand at intersections directing traffic.
Serious business.
Also, can you tell the difference between a tourist and a looter waiting for nightfall?
Neither can the authorities. Hence, all non-resident [del]looters[/del] tourists are cordially invited to get the hell off the Banks until power (and lighting, and security) can be restored.
At this time of year, air conditioners probably are serious business. But the restriction is probably more widely on any sort of high-current use devices, such as clothes dryers.
All stoves in the rental homes are electric. Just saying. We cook two time a day. We dry clothes twice a week.
From what I can tell there’s no natural gas supply at all on the Outer Banks, so when you go to a restaurant, everything is fried, cooked on an electric stove, or cooked over propane. I love it there, I feel sad for the residents/renters to lose this much business during the peak of the tourist season.
The North Carolina statutes include:
Some of the rentals in Nags Head go for $2,000+ a week. I’m not sure many tourists (even if they could remain) care to attempt to renegociate a weekly reduced lease to endure the hot/humid conditions without power/a/c while traveling to purchase ice and food.
Nags Head, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills didn’t lose power. Only Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island lost power.
The average price of a rental home on those Islands this time of the year is in excess of $3000. week.
Just curious. Are they making RV-ers leave? We usually arrive with our own power source (and fresh water, fridge, sewage, etc.).
I’ve been in power outages while traveling in our RV and it’s generally no problem, at least for several days.
Don’t. The law suits will more than compensate them in the long run. This tragedy was totally preventable.
Uh, no, the lawsuits won’t. They WILL compensate several lawyers well. The others will get far less than full compensation.
Also, they have to announce tourists are required to leave, so the tourists can claim insurance.
The insurers want to know its an official situation. Also looking after the residents will be expensive, and perhaps difficult. Why should the residents pay for the tourists to be looked after ?
So how did this situation occur? In most states contractors who do any digging are required to call a “One Call” number to find out if there are utility lines where they are digging. But in addition in this situation this was a state highway contract–and you would suppose the state would have already mapped out any utility lines or other obstacles.
This is frequently not done and if the lines are marked something goes wrong. E.g., they dig too close, the lines are not in the marked position, etc.
Several years ago some guys digging a drainage ditch for the county quite close to us struck an interstate gas pipeline very near out house. The noise of the pressurized gas escaping was horrific and lasted almost all day. Fortunately, no fire so things just reeked for a while.
Just yesterday there was this incident in Minnesota.
Humans are far from fool proof.
Remember kids, call before you dig!