Snowy conditions continue to persist throughout the state.
New Castle County is expected to receive up to 15 to 20 inches and Kent County will likely receive from 18 to 24 inches of snow. Coastal areas of Sussex County will receive the least snowfall, between 4 to 8 inches.
Woodside in Kent County is reporting the most snow accumulation in the state with 13.3 inches as of 1 pm. Port Penn in New Castle County has 12.5 inches. In Sussex County, Laurel has 7.4 inches.
Forecasters predict that the snow will taper off after midnight Saturday night.
Meanwhile, there is a coastal flood warning in effect for Sussex County. National Weather Service meteorologist Al Cope in Mount Holly, NJ, says coastal areas should be wary of the water levels with tonight’s high tide.
“Well we still have a couple of high tide cycles this evening and tomorrow morning, said Cope. "We may still see some serious coastal flooding with those high tides, so we’re not out of the woods yet.”
Drivers are being told to stay off the roads in much of the First State. Gov. Jack Markell has put a Level 2 driving restriction into effect in New Castle and Kent Counties as of 8 am Saturday.
The Level 2 restriction says no one may drive - except for persons designated as “essential personnel” or who have a waiver from the Delaware Emergency Management Agency.
Markell says the restriction is necessary to “required to keep people safe and off the roads, while allowing our DelDOT and emergency responder personnel to operate most effectively.”
A Level 1 driving restriction remains in place in Sussex County, where drivers are encouraged to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.
DelDOT spokesperson Jim Westoff says while the snow plows have been deployed, they’ve had to deal with drifting -- which means that they’ve had to replow sections of the main roads to keep up with the snowfall.
“Our hope is that we can get to the secondary roads in the next day or two. but right now we’re still focusing on the main roads in Kent and New Castle Counties,” said Westhoff.
DelDOT has more than 330 plows are on the road, and reports more than 500 personnel are currently working.
Westoff added that DelDOT has closed Route 1 between Dewey and Bethany Beach due to the coastal floods downstate.
DelDOT has suspended all bus and paratransit service Saturday. SEPTA has also announced it will not run service in the First State Saturday.
The state also remains under a State of Emergency Markell put into effect at 5 pm Friday.
There are power outages reported throughout the state. As of 1 pm Delmarva Power reports about 900 customers without power in Delaware. Almost all of them, nearly 700 are in Sussex County. The Delaware Electric Cooperative reports about 500 outages in Sussex.
