A restaurant experienced a power outage lasting over an hour and a half. Because of the outage, they decided to close for the rest of the evening, claiming lost revenue from missed dinner service. PLRB weather tools will help us explore outage duration, date and time, location, and eventual cause. As we investigate, we'll encounter an efficient proximate cause issue, the electrical currents exclusion, and a fried squirrel. Notable Timestamps

[ 00:00 ] - The episode sets up a real-world insurance scenario: a restaurant closes after a 90-minute power outage and claims lost revenue, raising questions about cause, duration, and coverage.

[ 00:38 ] - Investigating a power outage starts with verifying the exact date, time, duration, location, and cause, all of which are critical inputs for determining whether a claim may be payable.

[ 02:29 ] - Using PLRB's power outage report, investigators can search by address and date range, view outages within a one-mile radius, and see results on an interactive map and data table.

[ 03:14 ] - Outage data comes from utilities nationwide, gets updated every ten minutes, and covers about 87% of U.S. electric customers. This report helps establish whether an insured location likely lost power.

[ 05:04 ] - The report shows outage IDs, UTC timestamps, customer counts, utility names, estimated restoration times, and potentially the confirmed cause, all exportable in a shareable PDF.

[ 06:53 ] - Determining the outage cause is essential because many policies distinguish between natural events and artificial causes, which can directly affect coverage decisions.

[ 08:19 ] - In this case, investigators found the outage was caused by a squirrel contacting electrical equipment, leading to arcing that damaged a transformer and knocked out power.

[ 13:04 ] - The court rejected "but for" causation and made a ruling that did not invalidate the policy exclusion.

[ 17:49 ] - Dylan summarized upcoming PLRB Weather/CATs developments.

Your PLRB Resources

Weather/CATS: Get a Power Outage Report - https://members.plrb.org/weather-cat/power-outage-report

Case Law Review: City of West Liberty v. Employers Mutual Cas. Co., 922 N.W.2d 876 (Iowa 2/01/19) - https://members.plrb.org/documents/city-of-west-liberty-v-employers-mutual-cas-co-2019

Employees of member companies also have access to a searchable legal database, hundreds of hours of video trainings, building code materials, weather data, and even the ability to have your coverage questions answered by our team of attorneys (https://www.plrb.org/ask-plrb/) at no additional charge to you or your company.

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The views and opinions expressed in this resource are those of the individual speaker and not necessarily those of the Property & Liability Resource Bureau (PLRB), its membership, or any organization with which the presenter is employed or affiliated. The information, ideas, and opinions are presented as information only and not as legal advice or offers of representation. Individual policy language and state laws vary, and listeners should rely on guidance from their companies and counsel as appropriate.

Music: "Piece of Future" by Keyframe_Audio. Pixabay. Pixabay License. Font: Metropolis by Chris Simpson. SIL OFL 1.1. Icons: FontAwesome (SIL OFL 1.1) and Noun Project (royalty-free licenses purchased via subscription). Sound Effects: Pixabay (Pixabay License) and Freesound.org (CC0).

A Squirrel, A Power Outage, and a Ruined Dinner