Update: Winds blast Pot-Nets Bayside

Straight-line winds ripped through homes and left pontoon boats in a twisted heap in the early hours of Aug. 26 in Pot-Nets Bayside, off Long Neck Road.

Robert W. Tunnell III, partner of Pot-Nets Communities, said the damage was confined to an area near the community's large marina off Indian River Bay.

Residents reported the damage was caused by a waterspout or small tornado, but the National Weather Service could not confirm a tornado in the area. Meteorologist Joe Miketta said from the photographs he has seen and from researching radar data, there is no evidence of a tornado.

“Based on previous experience, we are not seeing any evidence. We think the winds were about 60 mph,” he said. “At the time of the wind event, there was a lot of rain, and possibly hail, and the wind was dragging the rain down with it,” he said.

He compared the wind hitting the ground to someone putting a fire hose against a wall and turning on the water full force. “The wind can't stop; it has to spread out and can even twist a little,” Miketta said.

Residents said the freak wind hit the community around 4:15 a.m. as a thunderstorm raged through the Cape Region, dropping as much as 8 inches of water in some locations.

Roofs were ripped off at least three homes, one shed was demolished and several trees were knocked down causing damage to five homes. Tunnell said a Pot-Nets crew worked 10 hours on Sunday to trim fallen trees and limbs and two crews were back on the job Aug. 27.

A car and boat were damaged when they were hit by falling debris. No injuries were reported.

In the nearby marina, at least five pontoon boats were piled on top of one another in a mass of wreckage. One pontoon boat was picked up from its slip and broken in half. A crane crew was busy working Sunday morning to remove the boats. Tunnell said it appears the boats were a total loss.

At least six more boats in other Pot-Nets marinas were damaged by flooding, Tunnell said.

Hundreds of curious onlookers – most in golf carts – crowded the area early Sunday where the damage occurred.

Don and Cam Wentzel, who spend weekends at their Pot-Nets home, had trouble sleeping while the storm raged around them.

“It was raining really hard with nonstop lightning and thunder, but there was no wind,” Cam said. “Then the front door started to rattle, and we both knew it was time to get into the hallway. It was all over in 15 seconds. The place really shook.”

“I'm certain I saw a waterspout,” Don said. “It had to be because it lifted a 4-by-4 stud from next door and put a 4-by-4 hole in my roof.”

The Wentzels had a front-row seat to the cleanup taking place at the marina across the street from their home Sunday morning as crews worked to salvage damaged boats.

Next door, the Snajkowskis were busy picking up debris scattered all over their yard. A large, blue tarp covered the top of their home where the roof was lifted off and deposited in their neighbor’s driveway.

“We had a lot of rain, and then the wind came,” said Donna Snajkowski. “It blew out some windows, and then the roof blew off. There was no warning, and yes, it did sound like a freight train was coming through.”

Snajkowski said she hoped some good Samaritans would come forward to help with repairs to her house. “I hope some people come to the rescue so we can save our place,” she said.

Bayside, with nearly 1,600 homes, is the largest of six Pot-Nets communities in the Long Neck area.

Overflowing stormwater management ponds forced the temporary closure of nearby Baywood Greens golf course and several roads in the Long Neck were flooded.

“I hope we never see anything like this again,” Tunnell said.

Flooding hits Rehoboth Beach

Heavy rain Aug. 25-26 flooded the Cape Region, including the majority of downtown Rehoboth Beach. Reports show hotel basements, parking garages and elevator shafts flooded, especially those on the south side of Wilmington Avenue.

Mayor Sam Cooper said the water around town receded around 4:30 a.m. He said the flooding damaged a lot of private property, but not city property. Cooper said two places with the most substantial flooding were at Funland and Brighton Suites’ underground parking garage.

Rehoboth Beach Police Chief Keith Banks said 25 to 30 cars stuck in the flooded Brighton Suites lot had to be towed out. He said no injuries were reported as a result of the weather. Banks said the water began receding around 2 a.m. before breaking at 4:30 a.m.

Cooper said he is meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to get an idea of the extent of the damage and how they plan to respond. He said much of the flooding on Delaware, Wilmington and Brooklyn avenues was caused by backed up stormwater outfall pipes.

Cooper said Rehoboth Avenue also had some flooding but it appears no significant damage. Some flooding in the area of Martins Lawn - the area behind Rehoboth Avenue next to the Cape Henlopen Senior Center - was caused by  cardboard that had washed out of the alley behind Dos Locos getting lodged into a storm drain, Cooper said. Once the cardboard was cleared, he said, the water went down.

Banks said he, Cooper and other officials will be going door-to-door to businesses to assess the damage. He said the assessments, particularly at a place like Brighton Suites where there were a lot of cars, could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Banks said to his knowledge, traffic throughout the city is moving as normal.

As far as how much rain the city got, Cooper said his rain gauge showed he had received five inches before he went to bed after midnight. A second storm overnight did not bring as much, he said, with only an additional three-quarters inch.