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Delaware's Storms of Record

By Ashley Dawson and Mike Finney
Posted 3/6/22

A hurricane in October 1878 brought a record occurrence of flooding for the middle and upper Delaware Bay. During the category 1 hurricane, at Little Creek, the water was 10.4 feet above mean sea …

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Delaware's Storms of Record

Posted
By Ashley Dawson and Mike Finney

    • A hurricane in October 1878 brought a record occurrence of flooding for the middle and upper Delaware Bay. During the category 1 hurricane, at Little Creek, the water was 10.4 feet above mean sea level — 4 feet above predicted high tide.

    • A hurricane on Sept. 15, 1903, affected the lower part of the Delaware Bay, causing flooding and damages in Lewes and along the Atlantic Coast. Five seamen aboard a schooner died when the vessel shipwrecked in the storm.

    • The 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane was an August storm that caused a 7- to 9-foot storm surge for the Delaware Bay. A Delaware Coastal Management Program report said the 24-hour storm flooded the National Guard Camp at Bethany Beach, the Henlopen and Belhaven hotels in Rehoboth and areas between Lewes and Rehoboth. Saltwater flooding inland destroyed crops between Kitts Hummock and Lewes.

    • On Sept. 18, 1936, a hurricane caused eight sailors aboard the steamer Long Island to drown when their vessel went down off the Delaware Bay. Crop damage was also reported.

    • On Sept. 14-15, 1944, a hurricane caused two fatalities in Delaware from people who suffered heart attacks trying to secure property and pushing the 254-foot SS Thomas Tracey onto the beach at Brooklyn Avenue in Rehoboth. Crops were damaged, the boardwalks in Bethany and Rehoboth were destroyed and a barge in the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal sank. In Lewes, residents of homes along the beach were evacuated because of flooding.

    • On Oct. 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel brought severe damage to Delaware. Six people died, including two who were trying to secure boats along the Delaware Bay.

    • Along the coast, the March Storm of ’62 destroyed homes and businesses, overwashed dune systems and flooded communities. Six family members were killed at Bowers Beach and one woman at Slaughter Beach. A sign on Cedar Avenue on Lewes Beach shows passersby how high the water rose when northeast winds blew through five tide cycles over three days. For a person of average height, the water was waist high, about 7.8 feet above mean sea level.

    • The second highest tides at the time were recorded at Breakwater Harbor in Lewes during an early January nor’easter in 1992. High winds, with gusts of 52 mph, destroyed sections of the Rehoboth boardwalk and businesses along it.

    • Back-to-back nor’easters with 50-mph winds and heavy rain in late January and early February 1998 caused heavy flooding for Delaware and Indian River bays.

    • During the Mother’s Day Storm in 2008, hundreds of Kent County residents along the Delaware Bay were evacuated from their homes as high winds and heavy rains from the overnight storm caused severe coastal flooding. Kitts Hummock and Pickering Beach received the brunt of the high waters, with reports of flooding nearing 6 feet. Rescuers plucked people from homes in Pickering Beach and Kitts Hummock using nine boats, and as the tide receded, National Guard trucks went from home to home. Wind velocities were in the 35 mph range, with gusts higher than 40 mph. The storm dumped up to 3 inches of rain in some southern parts of the state, and downed power lines and trees, causing outages for tens of thousands of residents throughout the state.

    • On Aug. 27-28, 2011, Hurricane Irene brought heavy rain to the state, with a high of 10.43 inches recorded in Ellendale, and a tornado in Lewes, with winds up to 95 mph, damaged around 50 homes in neighborhoods west of Lewes and destroyed one in the hours before the hurricane passed Delaware’s coast. Two deaths in Delaware were attributed to the storm.

    • While Hurricane Rina did not affect the United States directly from Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 2011, remnants from the storm joined with a large cold front to fuel a Halloween nor’easter.

    • The remnants of Hurricane Isaac moved over the eastern United States from Sept. 1-4, 2012, causing heavy rains over Delaware and other East Coast states.

    • Hurricane Sandy affected the entire state of Delaware from Oct. 29-30, 2012. Unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy, it was the deadliest, most destructive and strongest hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, inflicting nearly $70 billion in damage and killing 233 people across eight countries from the Caribbean to Canada. By the afternoon of Oct. 29, rainfall at Rehoboth Beach totaled 6.53 inches. Other precipitation reports included nearly 7 inches at Indian River Inlet and more than 4 inches in Dover and Bear. Delmarva Power reported on its website that day more than 13,900 customers in Delaware and portions of the Eastern Shore of Maryland had lost electric service as high winds brought down trees and power lines. About 3,500 of those were in New Castle County, 2,900 were in Sussex and more than 100 were in Kent County. Some residents in Kent and Sussex counties experienced power outages that lasted up to nearly six hours. At the peak of the storm, more than 45,000 customers in Delaware were without power. Del. 1 was closed due to water inundation between Dewey Beach and Fenwick Island. In Dewey, flood waters were 1 to 2 feet in depth. Following the impact in Delaware, President Barack Obama declared the entire state a federal disaster area, providing money and agencies for disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

    • On Sept. 19, 2017, waves from Hurricane Jose caused coastal flooding in Delaware.

    • Wind and rain from Tropical Storm Michael on Oct. 11-12, 2018, caused minor coastal flooding, heavy rain and some strong winds in the Delmarva Peninsula.

    • On July 7, 2020, Tropical Storm Fay passed just east of Delaware, producing gusty winds and heavy rainfall to the region.

    • During the first year of the coronavirus pandemic on Aug. 4, 2020, remnants from Tropical Storm Isaias moved directly across Delaware, spawning three tornadoes and bringing with it widespread power outages. It also resulted in the first hurricane-related death in the state since 2011 when a tree limb fell on a woman in Milford. One of the tornadoes brought by Isaias was a Delaware record-breaking twister that tracked from the state capital in Dover to Middletown — some 29.2 miles away. That path length more than doubled the previous record for a tornado in Delaware of 13 miles, which stemmed from a twister in New Castle County on June 7, 1988.

    • Hurricane Zeta affected Delaware as a post-tropical cyclone on Oct. 29, 2020.

    • The remnants of Hurricane Ida ripped apart the state of Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2021, and then headed up toward the Mid-Atlantic states. Although Delaware was not impacted as severely as other surrounding states, parts of New Castle County were underwater on Sept. 2, especially around the Brandywine Creek, which overflowed and caused massive flooding in the area, sparked power outages and made numerous roads impassable. More than 200 families around Wilmington were displaced due to the flooding.

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