SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - The steady hum of a generator has become background noise for Mary and Alan Knight since late Sunday night, when a powerful winter storm knocked out electricity across large portions of Sussex County.
“We just had no idea how long this one was going to take,” Mary Knight said. “So we went the distance, got ourselves prepared and situated for the worst.”
As the couple spoke, crews from Delaware Electric Cooperative arrived in their neighborhood to begin repairs. Despite harsh blizzard conditions that included high winds, bitter cold and blowing snow, the Knights said they were thankful for the crews working around the clock.
“When you think about the conditions they’ve had to work in over the last several days, I don’t want to be outside in it,” Alan Knight said. “These guys and gals are out there 24 hours a day.”
Delaware Electric Cooperative said the storm caused extensive damage to its system. At the height of the outage, nearly half of the cooperative’s approximately 122,000 members were without power.
“We have about 122,000 members, and at one point just under half of our system was out,” said CEO Rob Book. “That’s a significant blow to the system.”
Book said crews made major progress overnight, restoring power to thousands despite difficult conditions.
“In the last 24 hours, our guys and ladies have restored approximately 23,000 people overnight,” Book said.
The cooperative mobilized its entire workforce and brought in additional contractors from Virginia to speed up restoration efforts.
On the back roads outside Georgetown, resident John Gilfeather said the scale of the outages was surprising.
“Like one out of four houses is out of power,” Gilfeather said. “Then I checked it later on and they had it down to like 27,000. Yeah, they cut it about 50 percent within yesterday morning.”
A power line split in half sits just down the road from Gilfeather’s home. His family’s electricity was restored early Monday after being out for more than a day.
“About 26 hours, give or take,” he said.
Utility officials say crews will continue working until all remaining customers are restored, noting that repairs in rural and hard-to-reach areas may take longer.