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Snow buries Kent and New Castle Counties

Delaware Public Media

The blizzard is moving on, but the First State is just starting to deal with what’s left in its wake.

New Castle County and Kent County saw between 9 and 17 inches – with drifts higher in many places.

 

Woodside in Kent County remains the site with the highest snow total -  16.5 inches. In New Castle County, Port Penn and New Castle each have nearly 13 inches on the ground

Forecasters predict that the snow will taper off after midnight Saturday night.

 

A Level 2 driving restriction remains in New Castle and Kent until 10 am Sunday, meaning only “essential personnel” or those with a waiver from the Delaware Emergency Management Agency can be on the roads.  At 10 am it will drop to Level 1, which still encourages people to only drive is necessary.

DelDOT spokesperson Jim Westoff says while the snow plows were out all day Saturday, they 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.

In addition to the driving restriction, DART offered no service Saturday and says it will remain suspended Sunday.

 

The state has also seen some power outages, but as of 11 pm Saturday they were limited.  Delmarva Power reported about 300 customers without power,  239 of them in Sussex County andf the rest in New Castle County.  The Delaware Electric Cooperative only had 131 Sussex County customers without service.

Tom Byrne has been a fixture covering news in Delaware for three decades. He joined Delaware Public Media in 2010 as our first news director and has guided the news team ever since. When he's not covering the news, he can be found reading history or pursuing his love of all things athletic.