At 13:51 on Friday, 25 July, power to over 50,000 residence from Dagsboro to Bethany Beach to Bishopville was interrupted. The loss of power sent police agencies as well as area fire police scrambling to direct traffic, as several traffic signals were not functioning and traffic was becoming a nightmare. At first there was no explanation as to the cause of the power outage, but that would soon reveal itself. As fire police and police agencies began getting control of the traffic situation, the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center got a phone call from the dispatch center for Norfolk - Southern Railroad. The dispatcher informed the EOC of a train derailment 100 yrds. north of the Thorogoods Rd. crossing. Norfolk - Southern advised they had a derailment and one of the cars had taken out a power pole, but a fire department response was not necessary. First estimates were that it was a minor derailment and the power would not be restored for 4-6 hrs. However Conectiv Power was able to reroute power from the near by Indian River Power Plant and power was restored in 45 min. However when Conectiv arrived to the derailment site to inspect the pole damage, the extent of the derailment became apparent. The engineers of the 140 cars train were also just arriving to the site as they had to walk for approx. 20 min to get to the site. What they found was not a minor derailment, as (7) seven cars had completely left the track, and (2) two were off the track but still upright. Out of the (7) that left the track (4) four had rolled down a 30' embankment, with (1) one taking out the power pole. Over 800 tons of corn had spilled due to the grain cars being ripped open in the derailment. Early estimates were that it would be (2) weeks before the tracks would be back in service and that was with crews working around the clock. Fire officials were on scene from both the Dagsboro & Millsboro VFC's to asses the incident it was also determined that the original location as to were the derailment took place was off, the actual site was between Hub Court & the old 1st Omni Bank. A total of 9 cars were involved all were grain cars carrying corn to the Mountaire Feed Mill In Frankford. No injuries were reported & the the derailment is under investigation. Story & Photos: FF C. Hudson