DELAWARE (7/18/2016) Strong thunderstorms pounded Delaware late this afternoon, taking down trees and wires and dumping more than an inch of rain at spots.
A wind gust of 53 mph was measured at New Castle Airport at 4:26 p.m.
More than 16,000 Delmarva Power customers were without electricity at 6 p.m., almost all of them in New Castle County, and the company predicts some may not have service restored until late Tuesday morning. At 11:10 p.m., the number of outages was down to about 4,800 customers.
The Delaware Electric Cooperative reported more than 300 customers without electric service in Kent and Sussex counties at 6:10 p.m. Some had been out more than 90 minutes. All but about 20 members had power restored by 11:10 p.m.
A tree toppled onto a Hummer SUV on McKennans Church Road, temporarily trapping two people inside, but no injuries were reported.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch statewide until 8 tonight.
The weather service said large trees were reported down in Richardson Park and Wilmington Manor, and in Newport trees and power lines were down.