Blizzard Dumps More Than a Foot of Snow on Delaware, Knocks Out Power

The first major snowstorm of the 2016 winter season ended up being the worst snowstorm Delmarva has experienced since 2010. Up to 18 inches of snow were reported in parts of Kent County—snow wasn’t the only obstacle linemen faced as they spent two days working to restore power.

The first outages were reported at 2 a.m. on Saturday, January 23rd as winds gusted over 60 mph along the Delaware coast. At the height of the storm, more than 3,400 members were in the dark, nearly all of them in Sussex County, which experienced the highest winds. Damage was wide spread; a utility pole was blown into the Classic Motel in Georgetown on Saturday morning and numerous trees and branches fell onto Cooperative lines.

Flooding was also an issue. Linemen were unable to restore power to parts of Prime Hook and Mariners Cove in Sussex County until Sunday, January 24th because the areas had been flooded. DEC is proud of all the employees who worked in the storm, everyone worked together to safely to restore power and members weren’t shy in expressing their appreciation. Below are a handful of the hundreds of thank you messages posted on our Facebook page.