Possible Tornado Damages DEC Headquarters

GREENWOOD, Del.-Delaware Electric Cooperative crews have restored power to nearly all homes and businesses impacted by Monday night’s severe storms. As of 9:00 a.m., only four homes remained without power in the Co-op’s service territory. At the height of the storm on Monday night, nearly 2,000 homes were in the dark. Crews worked all night to restore power—total restoration is expected by 10:00 a.m. Tuesday.

Co-op officials are also assessing damage to several structures at its headquarters along Rt. 13 in Greenwood. High winds associated with a severe storm Monday night heavily damaged a building used to house electrical equipment. Two construction trailers were also blown over, as were several trees and a large fence. Sussex County was under a tornado warning when the storm hit—the National Weather Service will be on site Tuesday investigating whether the damage at DEC and across western Sussex County was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds.

According to Delaware Electric Cooperative President and CEO Bill Andrew, “We are thankful no one was injured during the storm and are lucky the winds struck after normal working hours. The area damaged would have been full of workers during the day. If the storm had hit at 4:00 p.m. instead of 6:15 p.m., employees could have been injured or killed. We’d also like to thank members for their patience as we worked to restore power. The damage to our property did not impact our restoration efforts.”

Delaware Electric Cooperative is a member-owned electric utility serving 94,000 member-owners in Kent and Sussex Counties, Delaware. For more information, visit DEC on the web at www.delaware.coop or www.beatthepeak.coop or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.