The Long Island Power Authority and National Grid are getting walloped by another super storm.
An eye-popping 120 plaintiffs have slapped the New York-based utilities with a lawsuit, claiming widespread damages from Hurricane Sandy.
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Damage in Breezy Point. (Handout)
The complainants, who lived in Breezy Point, Queens — one of the areas hardest hit by the storm — charge in court papers that the companies burned down their homes by not heeding obvious warning signs.
“Had LIPA and National Grid acted responsibly in preparing for the storm my clients would be living in their homes with all of their life’s possessions and these two communities would not look like a war-zone,” said the complainants’ attorney, Keith Sullivan, who filed the suit this morning in Queens Supreme Court.
“LIPA and National Grid chose to keep dangerous electricity flowing into the Breezy Point and Rockaway Beach communities during the worst storm in history, Sullivan said.
FDNY Fire marshals confirmed that the fires erupted when rising seawater came into contact with the electrical systems of burned up houses, according to Sullivan.
The suit, which lists LIPA and National Grid as defendants, doesn’t give a dollar amount in damages, but Sullivan estimated it at $80 million.
“I’m pretty angry,’’ said 70-year-old plaintiff Katy Gallagher. “We lost everything we owned. … If they had shut off the electricity, where would we be today? We’d be home.’’
On Oct. 24, 2012, the suit says, Sandy became a Category One Hurricane and strengthened to Category Two at its peak intensity.
As the storm rolled up the Atlantic coastline, the National Weather Service warned all residents in the Tri-State area to watch out for high winds and flooding.
Two days later, in preparation for the storm, Governor Cuomo declared a state-of-emergency for New York’s 62 counties.
Due to the enormity of the hurricane, Cuomo requested and received a Pre-Landfall Disaster Declaration from President Obama.
On October 28, New York City issued a Mandatory Evacuation Order for the Rockaway Peninsula, including Breezy Point.
Simultaneously, utility companies were required to cut off power to those areas “to prevent property loss due to fire as well as safety purposes,” the suit says.
But officials at LIPA and National Grid buried their heads in the sand.
Instead of following protocol and going through the “de-energization process,” the companies simply left their switches on, the suit alleges.
When the storm crashed down on Oct. 29, roughly 150 houses went up in flames in Breezy Point and Rockaway Beach.
The fires, the suits says, were the result of “heat from electrical arcing caused by flooding contacting electrical transmission lines that had been left in service and electrified by defendants LIPA and National Grid.”
The suit also alleges that LIPA passed off their responsibilities to National Grid by paying them a minimum base of $224 million per year to operate and maintain the electrical transmissions, repair the delivery systems and equipment and to handle their service lines.
A LIPA spokesman said of the lawsuit, “The actions taken during Sandy were reasonable and appropriate, and we do not believe the claims have merit.”
A National Grid rep added, “National Grid’s actions during Sandy were reasonable and appropriate and we don’t believe that these claims have merit.”
“My house burned down with everything in it. Thankfully, my wife, 8-month-old twins and 4-year-old were not in it,’’ said plaintiff Patrick Mullaney, who took refuge at his brother-in-law’s house.
“I got back [home] at 6 o’clock the next morning, and there was nothing there. It was smoldering. It was devastating.
“I think a lot of people may assume that these were summer homes. But they were our year-round homes.”
Another plaintiff, Ellie Cook, 25, added: “We had three houses in my family, and they were all lost.
“I assumed the electricity would have turned off. It was a mandatory evacuation. It shoudl have been,” she said.
“If they had [turned it off], it would have been fine. Only my basement would have flooded.’’
Additional reporting by Jennifer Bain and Kate Sheehy