Powerful weather systems moved into Delaware Thursday, leaving thousands of Delmarva Power and Delaware Electric Cooperative customers without electricity.
The outage figure had been as high as 15,000 in New Castle County, which has nearly 215,000 Delmarva customers.
Some of the homes and business without power appeared to be in the Newark area. An area near Newark saw a tornado Tuesday night that damaged several homes in the Robscott Manor area.
A thunderstorm warning remained in effect for the area until 10:15 a.m. and skies had brightened by that time. State Police and the Delaware Department of Transportation were getting reports of power lines and trees down. Numerous intersections lost their traffic signals. The National Weather Service is reporting that the storm will result in 2 to 4 inches of rain with higher amounts in some areas.
Later in the day, it was Sussex County’s turn and more than 3,000 Delmarva Power residents ended up without power. As of early Thursday evening, about 3,000 New Castle County residents were without power. About 400 Delaware Electric Cooperative customers were without power as of 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Delmarva Power asked customers to be careful around power lines and crews. Power lines are not necessarily safe, even if crews are in the area, the utility cautioned.
A flood watch was canceled, although showers were likely later in the night.
Click here for Delmarva Power outage information. Click here for the Delaware Electric outage map.
Updates are also posted on the Facebook page of the National Weather Service Mount Holly, N.J. office.
