Rare tornado hits Bear area, causing limited damage

Why Should Delaware Care?
Tornadoes are particularly rare, especially in northern New Castle County where one touched down Thursday. While the storm caused some localized damage, no injuries have been reported.

Lori Seaman said storm warnings have become so frequent that she barely gives them pause anymore — but she will now after a rare New Castle County tornado potentially struck her home Thursday.

Seaman, who lives in the Salem Woods community off Old Baltimore Pike in the Bear area, was at home when she noticed the skies getting dark. When she heard the wind begin to pick up and the rain begin the pelt her home, she figured the day’s storm had arrived.

“But then it just got louder and louder to the point where the whole house was shaking, and I just started hearing things banging around,” she recalled Thursday afternoon. “And this huge boom as the trees came down on top of the house. It was just pretty wild.”

Seaman ran down into the basement to take cover, but after a few minutes of quiet she ventured outside to see what had occurred.

That’s when she saw the funnel cloud clear as day about a half mile away.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado did touch down in New Castle County, but its intensity and exact track is still being determined. Crews are expected to visit the county – as well as Burlington County, N.J., where another tornado struck – on Friday to assess the damage and make those determinations.

Seamen wasn’t alone, as many people captured video or photos of the funnel cloud that was visible for miles.

Thankfully, no major injuries have been reported from the storm, despite it striking a heavily populated part of the state. Damage was particularly isolated – Seaman’s neighborhood, which boasts hundreds of homes, looked rather untouched in many areas – but included a hotel and ChristianaCare’s Newark Campus in the area.

In a statement, the healthcare system said its helipads and two helicopters sustained minor damage in the storm, but no one was injured and no patient care was impacted. According to photos by WDEL, at least one helicopter sustained a snapped rotor blade.

Over the next several days, ChristianaCare will stand up a temporary helipad and remove the damaged helicopters so they can be inspected and repaired.

Since when does New Castle County get tornadoes?

While Delaware may not be Kansas or Oklahoma, tornadoes are fairly common in the First State, occurring about once a year on average, but they typically occur in the spring or summer and in the lower counties.

One struck Dover in August, causing damaged to motels, warehouses and Little League fields.

Since 1950, New Castle County has averaged roughly one tornado every two to three years, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration storm records. A 2023 twister in the Middletown area tore up roofs in several neighborhoods.

The appearance of a tornado this late in the calendar year is particularly unexpected though. Only one other November tornado has ever been recorded by the National Weather Service since 1950 — and it occurred in 1989.

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