Residents of Lumberton, a small city near the North Carolina coast, claim that the CSX railroad’s refusal to allow officials to berm a rail underpass ahead of Hurricane Florence allowed a catastrophic flood to submerge their homes and businesses.

In a class action filed on Monday, the plaintiffs claim that during and after the hurricane, water from storm-swollen rivers flowed unimpeded through the underpass, which passes beneath Interstate-95 and cuts directly through a city levee.