Another Monday of rough weather rolls through Delaware

Last Monday, it was a tornado that damaged homes in Robscott Manor in Newark; this week, a line of thunderstorms and heavy rains last night is to blame for damage throughout New Castle County.

Most of the damage was centered on a corridor along I-495 in north Wilmington and Brandywine Hills that rolled through from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Around 6 p.m., another wave of heavy rains made Route 40 in Bear its demarcation line. After 8 p.m., the area around the canal was hit hardest.

A huge tree was ripped up from its roots and fell just feet from a home in the 4000 block of Byron Street in Brandywine Hills. A few doors down, a heavy branch smashed into a car sitting in the driveway.

In the 3200 block of Van Buren Street, inside Wilmington city limits, a tree smashed through a children’s play area. The heavier than normal rains over the last few weeks have made the root systems in larger, older trees more vulnerable to rains like the ones that came through last night. There was also live power lines knocked into the street for a time too. At the height of the storm over a thousand people were left in the dark. That number is less than 500 as of this morning. Most of those affected are in the Bear and Glasgow area.

These storms are in advance of a cold front moving through with a prediction of more storms like this possible this afternoon.