A $10.53 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over a power outage that hit Hatteras and Ocracoke islands for several days last summer at the height of the tourist season.

The Salisbury law firm of Wallace & Graham filed the class-action suit against PCL Civil Constructors.

On July 27, workers for the construction company drove a steel casing into an underground transmission cable while working on the Bonner Bridge, cutting off power to the area.

The outage left nearly 10,000 customers in the dark and triggered a mandatory evacuation for visitors at the height of tourist season. Power was fully restored and the evacuations were lifted on Aug. 4.

In the settlement, PCL denies doing anything wrong or unlawful and denies any liability in the incident.

If the proposed settlement is approved, business owners, permanent residents and people who rented or rented out vacation property on Hatteras or Ocracoke islands may be eligible for benefits. Claim forms would be available for submission.

Utility companies used generators during the outage to provide power to the islands, using rolling blackouts. In a news release last year, Wallace and Graham said “tens of thousands” of residents and tourists were forced to evacuate the islands.

Plaintiffs include Briggs McEwan, who runs a pizza and home rental business in Rodanthe, and Tami Lynette Gray, who has a charter boat business.