Sunday August, 26 2012 @ 05:37:42

Nature: Washdown (fuel Spill)

Address: 34837 Sloop Ave Millsboro, DE 19966

On Sunday morning, August 26th, the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company was alerted for a fuel spill on Sloop Avenue in the Pot Nets Bayside development.  The incident turned out to be overturned vessels and damaged residential strucutures.

Emergency response apparatus included Engine #80-5 and Rescue 80.

Chief Steven C. Deery, Jr. coordinated the incident mitigation and was able to determine that the fuel spill was being emitted from the overturned vessels that were in the Pot Nets Marina area.

It appears that these vessels were causalities of the inclement weather.

Illustrated are photographs of this incident.

Additional information may be obtained via the following website:

* WGMD Radion 92.7

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=67446

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=67634

Pot Nets Bayside Residents Had Front-Row Seat to Weekend Storm

Don and Cam Wentzel had front row seats to what blew through Pot Nets Bayside during the weekend storm that drenched the eastern side of Delmarva.

Debris from a neighbor’s house litters Don and Cam Wentzel’s property, including their boat, following the weekend storm in Pot Nets Bayside.

Cam says around 4 o’clock Sunday morning, she and her husband went to the door as the wind picked up. When the door started shaking from the wind, they retreated into a hallway and listened as the wind blew pieces of debris from their neighbors’ homes against their house. Cam says it only lasted about 15 seconds, but the damage had been done.

In addition to the neighbors’ roofs being ripped off, several boats from the dock behind their house had been flipped and tossed about, several large branches came down in their yard, a four-by-four from their neighbor’s roof punctured their roof, and some shingles and aluminum siding had also been damaged by the wind. Don says one of the boats was thrown about 40 yards across the slips.

The Wentzels are among several Pot Nets Bayside residents who believe the damage was caused by a waterspout that came onshore and became a tornado. They believe this because of the amount of damage neighboring houses received, compared to how little damage their house got. They say the debris was blown about in all different directions. The National Weather Service has yet to confirm if it was in fact a tornado that did the damage.

http://www.wgmd.com/?p=67658

National Weather Service Reviewing Pictures, Radar to Determine If Tornado Hit Pot Nets Bayside

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Mount Holly, New Jersey is now reviewing the radar loop and pictures taken by Sussex County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) officials to determine if the wind damage in Pot Nets Bayside was caused by a tornado or straight-line winds.

Director Joe Thomas says EOC staff visited the development on Sunday after boats were flipped and tossed, roofs and siding ripped off houses, and large tree branches were knocked down overnight. Several residents in Pot Nets Bayside believe the damage was caused by a waterspout that came onshore, becoming a tornado.

Thomas says as they review the radar loop, the investigators will be looking for signs of rotation in the cell that moved through Long Neck. Rotation in a thunderstorm shows up on radar as what’s known as a “hook echo,” which looks like a quotation mark. A hook echo can indicate a developing tornado. The investigators will then compare the radar imagery to the damage pattern in the development. Thomas says if a tornado went through, the debris would be pointing in all different directions. If it was straight-line winds, all the debris would be pointing in the same direction.

Indian River was notified that It appears that the final determination for the Pot Nets Bayside event will be that of a straight-line wind event. This decision was based upon several factors:

1) No strong rotation indicated on Dover Doppler Radar, even though it's fairly close to the storm damage;

2) Area of damage was coincident with high reflectivity core, suggesting a downburst vs. tornado;

3) Damage path was not continuous; and

4) Most of the damage shown in the pictures suggest winds less than 65 mph, the low end of the weakest tornadoes (EF-0).

Wind damage from a typical straight-line wind event can do as much or more damage than from the typical tornado in Delaware (EF-0 and EF-1). 

Cape Gazette Newspaper

http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/news/story/update-winds-blast-pot-nets-bayside/888474

Update: Winds blast Pot-Nets Bayside

Weekend storm damages homes, boats

By Ron MacArthur | Aug 27, 2012

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.