Legalectric

Here’s the Salem & Hope Creek reactors on the Delaware River, just across from Port Penn. Doesn’t flooding shut down nuclear plants?

Kent County is evacuating coastal communities… Delaware City, just north of Port Penn, is several inches deep on the main drag through town, and the trailer park is flooded worse.

From today’s STrib – better check the News Urinal too (below):

Evacuations in progress in coastal Delaware;tides, rain, flooding communities
Associated Press

May 12, 2008

KITTS HUMMOCK, Del. – Delaware officials say evacuations are in progress in flooded coastal communities.

Allen Metheny, assistant director of emergency management in Kent County, says rescuers are evacuating as many of the coastal communities as they can. High tides and heavy rains have flooded roads, requiring the assistance of the Delaware National Guard and the Delaware State Police in the evacuation operation.

Metheny says the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is also providing assistance.

And here’s from the Delaware News Journal:

Storm knocks down trees, cuts power; evacuations ordered along Del. Bay

By DAMIAN GILETTO and JAMES MERRIWEATHER • The News Journal • May 12, 2008

A major storm that brought heavy rain and high winds overnight felled trees and knocked out power across the state, and forced boat evacuations of coastal residents along the Delaware Bay.

In Kent County, the Emergency Management Division of the Department of Public Safety posted a mandatory evacuation order for Kitts Hummock and Pickering Beach along the Delaware Bay. Bret Scott, a county spokesman, said that, as of 8 a.m., about 150 residents had been evacuated from Kitts Hummock and that most of the county’s coastal communities were experiencing flooding.

The Kitts Hummock Fraternal Order of Police Lodge and the Little Creek Fire Hall were pressed into service as emergency shelters, Scott said.

“We continue to monitor the flooding, and we have concerns about all low-lying areas of the county,” Scott said. “We have flooding in all our coastal communities. It’s just worse in some areas than others.”

Residents who need assistance should call 911.

At Kitts Hummock, emergency responders were taking evacuees to the Little Creek Fire Hall.

Anthony Willing waited near the evacuation zone to find out whether his father had been evacuated.

“I don’t know if they took him out – I’m down here to find out,” Willing said.

He said that the water level there was about halfway up the side of a car, and that he had seen 250-gallon fuel tanks floating in the water.

James Mariana said his father, mother and dog were evacuated from the area by boat at around 6 a.m.

The evacuations over a wide area included places like Woodland Beach and Bowers Beach, an official with the Kent County fire board said.

Jeff Howell, of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, says his crew had extricated about 80 people this morning.

At Bowers Beach, the flow was more than two feet above the height of a dock.

In Dover, the St. Jones River jumped its banks and broke a record for flow on this day.

But at Dover Air Force Base, even during 40- and 50-mile-an-hour gusts, crews are out mowing the grass and doing routine checks of cars entering the base – opening the hoods and having people step out of their vehicles.

Lake Forest School District reported buses were unable to reach some flooded areas.

Carol Cathell of the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center reported localized flooding, “lots of power outages” and wires and trees down. Among other damage, a power pole fell on a house in Gumboro, part of a roof was blown off a house in Frankford and Mountaire, the poultry processor, lost the roof of a storage building at its Millsboro location.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory until 4 p.m., with gusts reaching 56 mph overnight at New Castle Airport.

In Delaware City, water several inches deep made travel difficult on Del. 9.

At the Del. 9 and Del. 72 intersection, a traffic light was partially knocked down, low enough to obstruct high vehicles.

Delmarva Power is reporting that more than 24,000 customers are without power in Delaware and Maryland, according to the company’s website..

More than 10,000 of the outages are in New Castle County.

The Delaware Electric Cooperative, which serves mostly Kent and Sussex counties, is reporting about 250 customers without power, down from 1,300 earlier today.