More than 12 inches of rain fall in Sussex County
- A flash flood watch is in effect for the whole state until 4 p.m. Friday.
- Roads are covered, and some closed, by rainwater.
That escalated quickly.
Delaware got socked with a soggy mess of a rainstorm Thursday, with record amounts of rain coming down on soil that had been dry most of September. Some areas saw more than 12 inches with street flooding.
A flash flood watch covers Delaware through 4 p.m. Friday, and a flood warning is in effect for Sussex County until 9:15 a.m. Friday.
The National Weather Service said Friday morning that a flood advisory is in effect for New Castle County and northwestern Kent County until 11:15 a.m.
The heaviest rains Thursday were concentrated in eastern Sussex County, which was also lashed with strong winds. An astonishing 12.36 inches of rain was recorded in Harbeson in the 24 hours ending at 11:20 p.m., according to the University of Delaware's Delaware Environmental Observing System. (Scroll down to see rainfall totals across the state.)
"It's basically just a big rainstorm," said Alyson Hoegg, a meteorologist for AccuWeather.com – not a nor'easter, a tropical storm or anything else. "The whole system is actually centered out across the Ohio Valley, sitting there and spinning. We're getting all this moisture streaming up on the eastern side."
The rain, Hoegg said Thursday, would be at its heaviest Thursday night before transitioning Friday to more scattered showers and perhaps thunderstorms. "Friday and Saturday will be significantly less wet," Hoegg said.
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The rain, coupled with high tides, flooded dozens of roads in eastern Sussex, and some of them had so much standing water they were impassable. Delaware Technical Community College closed its Georgetown campus early because of flooding on roads and near its buildings. Many schools canceled after-school games and activities. The effects were more widely felt than any from Tropical Storm Hermine a few weeks ago.
Wet roads were the norm for folks traveling in the Fenwick Island and Selbyville area as they popped in and out of the grocery market near the Bayside community.
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Roads were slick with small puddles causing some hydroplaning down Del. 54 and Coastal Highway, from Fenwick Island to Bethany Beach. Marshlands along Del. 54 were brimming with water, and most of the canal docks in the neighborhoods along Del. 54 were submerged. In Dewey Beach, water started to flood Dover Street and Read Street.
"High water is not restricted to coastal communities and is due to the ground not being able to accept any more water through saturation," the Department of Transportation said in a statement.
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Further south, the majority of Ocean City, Maryland, experienced intermittent flooding, particularly on Coastal Highway and Philadelphia Avenue. The southernmost portion of the island received the brunt of the flooding with roadways covered in several inches of water.
A line of thunderstorms that pounded the Lower Shore of Maryland Wednesday night into Thursday flooded local roads with up to 9½ inches of rain, created washouts and sinkholes on three Salisbury streets and forced the evacuation of the Canal Woods condominium complex.
“This amount of rain was unexpected,” said David Shipley, Wicomico County’s director of emergency services. “There was nothing we could have done.”
Back in Delaware, Dewey Beach surfers Ian Thomas, 19, and Scott Issacs, 20, parked at the Indian River Inlet Thursday to check out the waves. They walked along the sandy path barefoot.
“It’s a little rough right now, but we’re gonna go out today,” Issacs said. “Storms make good waves."
The Delmarva Media Group contributed to this story. Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter@JamesFisherTNJorjfisher@delawareonline.com.
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