March storm aftermath in Delaware: Icy roads, pretty pictures, frozen ocean

Delaware schools were closed again. State, city, and county offices opened two hours late.

The big dig out began Friday morning with the hopes that warmer temperatures over the weekend will make it a lot easier to deal with a storm that dumped just under 3.5 inches in Selbyville, Sussex County to almost 8 inches in Talleyville in New Castle County.

DelDOT reports the major roads are cleared. They’ll start the process of finishing up the secondary roads, but caution that the cold temperatures will hamper their progress. An example of that could be found traveling along Route 72 and 71 through Bear. Motorists driving along Wrangle Hill Road found pavement going in both directions with a snow ridge in the middle of the street. Drivers traveling along Red Lion Road found slow going with packed snow which made cars skid when going up hills.

Then there was the cold. Wilmington hit a record low 8 degrees this morning. With all the rain that took place before it turned to snow, many people were surprised to find that cars which hadn’t been cleared of snow last night had frozen locks this morning.

There were reports of more than 80 disabled vehicles on Delaware roads during the storm. That number spiked Friday morning with 200 calls to AAA. The auto club also reports there were 70 calls over the last 2 days from people who locked their keys in the car.

Along the Delaware beaches the ocean froze again. It’s the second time in a week. Saltwater freezes at 28.4 degrees. Usually movement of the tides will prevent the Atlantic Ocean freezing. The last 30 days has been the exception.

Heavy snow totals predicted for Sussex County never materialized as the rain continued until after 3pm on Thursday. Warnings for people to stay home were heeded for the most part and allowed everyone to get through the storm.

When they woke up this morning, residents were treated to trees heavily caked in snow painting a lovely picture against the blue skies.

By 10 a.m. everything was pretty much up and running. A long line waited outside the New Castle County Courthouse to conduct their business. Those in line got a break when doors opened at 9:50am.

And just to prove that spring is coming AAA issued a reminder that we move our clocks forward one hour on Sunday. It’ll be darker when we go to work in the morning, but bright sunshine when we go home. Won’t that be a pretty sight when all the snow is melted?