Delaware's small footprint places the entire state within range of both coastal storm systems and winter weather — two outage drivers that require different planning scenarios within the same household.
Delaware's NRI top hazards are Winter Weather, Cold Wave, and Riverine Flooding — the practical outage record reflects a coastal-corridor state where nor'easters, inland flooding, and coastal storms each contribute to multi-day outage risk.
Mixed Coastal-Corridor Outage Risk
Delaware is the smallest contiguous US state by area, which means there is no meaningful inland buffer from coastal weather systems. The Delaware Bay coastline and the Rehoboth-Lewes area in Sussex County carry hurricane and nor'easter exposure comparable to the broader Mid-Atlantic corridor, while New Castle County and the Wilmington metro area see recurring severe-storm and flooding events driven by proximity to the Christina and Brandywine rivers.
The BPI cross-signal layer flags New Castle as the primary county for medical-backup sensitivity, with an emPOWER count of 4,189 electricity-dependent Medicare beneficiaries — the highest in the state. Sussex County leads in storm-event frequency. Kent County falls between the two in both dimensions. All three Delaware counties are small enough that a single major storm system can affect the entire state simultaneously.
Delaware's three-county structure means that any major coastal storm or winter weather event can affect all three counties simultaneously. That makes statewide continuity planning more useful here than pretending the coastal and inland parts of the state operate as separate outage worlds.
FEMA DR-4627 — remnants of Hurricane Ida brought flooding and storm damage across Delaware in 2021; one of 2 hurricane-related declarations in the 5-declaration federal record for the 2014-2023 window.
Source: FEMA DR-4627Evidence trail
These notes trace the editorial claims above back to FEMA, DOE, utility, or other cited records.
FEMA declaration count (5) from OpenFEMA API, deduplicated by disaster number, DR/EM/FM types, 2014-2023; Delaware's mix in this window includes Hurricane (2), Snowstorm (1), and Biological (2).
NRI composite score (93.0) from FEMA NRI county layer, population-weighted to state level; top modeled hazards are Winter Weather, Cold Wave, and Riverine Flooding.
NOAA outage-relevant event mix is led by Thunderstorm Wind (699), Strong Wind (412), Flash Flood (156), Flood (124), and High Wind (104), with Sussex and New Castle leading county counts.
HHS emPOWER counts 9,277 electricity-dependent Medicare beneficiaries statewide; New Castle (4,189), Sussex (3,160), and Kent (1,928) cover all three counties. New Castle leads in medical-backup sensitivity; Sussex leads in storm-event frequency in the BPI cross-signal layer.
Delaware Remnants of Hurricane Ida DR-4627 from FEMA disaster declaration records.
Structured FEMA NRI, HHS emPOWER, NOAA Storm Events, and EIA methodology is documented separately on the methodology page.
NRI composite score of 93.0 reflects relatively high composite modeled hazard exposure; top modeled hazards are Winter Weather, Cold Wave, and Riverine Flooding, with 2 hurricane-related and 1 snowstorm declaration in the 5-declaration federal record..
NOAA storm-event records filtered to outage-relevant event types for Delaware. Counts reflect historical storm-event assignments, not confirmed utility outages.
Analysis window
2005-01 to 2024-12
Included storm-event records
1,662
Source as of
2026-03
Included exact NOAA event types for Delaware: Thunderstorm Wind, Tornado, High Wind, Strong Wind, Flash Flood, Flood, Hurricane (Typhoon), Tropical Storm, Tropical Depression, Storm Surge/Tide, Winter Storm, Ice Storm, Freezing Rain, Heavy Snow, Blizzard.
In this filtered NOAA record set for Delaware, Jul has the highest monthly count (251 records) , and Thunderstorm Wind is the leading event type. This chart shows frequency in NOAA records, not how severe a specific outage may be.
47.5% of listed records were matched directly to this county.
74.0% of listed records were matched directly to this county.
58.3% of listed records were matched directly to this county.
With the current Delaware NWS county crosswalk, mapped forecast zones are effectively 1:1 with counties, and no unresolved forecast zones were present in this state contract.
Direct county match
59.9%
Mapped from forecast zone
40.1%
Not assigned to county ranking
0.0%
Unresolved forecast zones
0
County-level HHS emPOWER counts for electricity-dependent Medicare beneficiaries in Delaware.
9,277 Medicare beneficiaries in Delaware have claims associated with electricity-dependent medical equipment. (HHS emPOWER, 2026-03)
County-level HHS emPOWER records for this state. Medicare enrollment data only. 3 counties are included in this state snapshot.
Counties with higher concentrations may face elevated community-level demand for backup power during outages. This does not indicate individual medical necessity.
Limitations: Reflects Medicare beneficiaries with claims associated with electricity-dependent medical equipment. Does not capture non-Medicare or uninsured populations. HHS masks cells from 1 to 10 as 11.
Model a 48-hour scenario for coastal Sussex County. For New Castle and Wilmington, a 24-hour severe-storm case covers most events, with winter weather as a secondary planning scenario.
New Castle and Kent County scenario: severe thunderstorm or nor'easter with typical next-day restoration.
Load
698W
Target
24h
Minimum
27,600 Wh
Covers the most common Wilmington-area outage window. Sussex coastal households should plan for 48 hours.
Size this scenario in calculatorSussex County scenario: coastal storm system or significant nor'easter with extended outage and potential access delays.
Load
1396W
Target
48h
Minimum
110,100 Wh
Delaware's coast is exposed to the same nor'easter corridor as Maryland's Eastern Shore. This scenario keeps a gas furnace or boiler blower running; it does not model electric resistance heating.
Size this scenario in calculatorCritical Note: No single portable power station in our database covers the full 24-hour baseline at this load (27,600 Wh target vs. 6,144 Wh max in our current database). Use solar recharge, load rotation, or expandable systems for longer events.
Planning only for winter weather while ignoring the coastal storm surge exposure in Sussex County.
Underestimating how quickly a single major storm can affect all three Delaware counties simultaneously.
Sizing only for a brief outage when New Castle and Sussex households have seen multi-day events from coastal storms.
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Composite score: 93.0 / 100
Rating: Relatively High
Top modeled hazards: Winter Weather, Cold Wave, Riverine Flooding
Hurricane score: 91.1
Winter Weather score: 97.6
Wildfire score: 67.2
Total (2014-2023): 5
Most recent: 2021-10-24 Hurricane
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| Biological | 2 |
| Hurricane | 2 |
| Snowstorm | 1 |
Required Wh = (Total Load W × Target Hours / Inverter Derate) × Safety Factor
Inverter derate: 0.70 (30% real-world loss)
Safety factor: 1.15
Rounding: Up to nearest 100 Wh
Delaware has an NRI composite risk score of 93.0 (Relatively High), with 5 federal declarations from 2014 to 2023. NRI composite score of 93.0 reflects relatively high composite modeled hazard exposure; top modeled hazards are Winter Weather, Cold Wave, and Riverine Flooding, with 2 hurricane-related and 1 snowstorm declaration in the 5-declaration federal record..
For the primary scenario on this page (24-hour inland storm support), the estimated minimum is 27,600 Wh for a 24-hour target. Refine this in the calculator with your actual devices.
NRI is a modeled risk index based on hazard exposure, vulnerability, and expected loss. FEMA declarations reflect federally declared incidents. They answer different questions — use both signals together for planning.
Assuming Delaware's small size means shorter outages — coastal geometry means a major storm can take down power across all three counties simultaneously. See the common mistakes section above for more state-specific pitfalls.
