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Rhode Island: Risks & Trends

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Same standard as every other page on this site: every figure below is independently sourced, and figures that vary across sources, or measure genuinely different things, are flagged as such rather than collapsed into one number that looks more precise than the underlying data actually supports.

The Hurricane of 1938

MetricFigure
Date September 21, 1938
Rhode Island deaths ~229 (estimate)
Providence sustained winds/gusts 100 mph sustained, gusting to 125 mph
Providence storm surge 13+ ft, submerging downtown
Narragansett Bay storm surge 12-15 ft, destroying most coastal homes, marinas, and yacht clubs
Notable single loss 7 children killed in Jamestown when their school bus was blown into Mackerel Cove
Power outage duration Several weeks in some areas

A regional storm, a state-specific toll

Connecticut’s and New Hampshire’s pages on this site cover this same storm’s broader 564-682 Southern New England death toll. Rhode Island’s ~229 estimate is this state’s specific share of that regional total, not a separate event.

The March 2010 floods

MetricFigure
Dates Late March 2010, over 3 days
Rainfall ~16 in
Statistical classification 1-in-100-year rainfall event
Pawtuxet River crest 13 ft above flood stage, 20.79 ft total
Deaths 0 direct; 1 indirect (a traffic fatality during the storm)
Disaster assistance applications 26,000+ Rhode Islanders
Federal disaster assistance $79 million
Historical ranking The worst flooding the state had experienced in more than 200 years

A historic flood without a mass-casualty outcome

Unlike many of the acute disasters covered on this site, Rhode Island’s 2010 flood caused zero direct deaths despite being officially the worst flood in over two centuries. That combination, historic severity without a matching death toll, is a genuine credit to the state’s warning and response systems, in the same category as Minnesota’s 1997 flood and Iowa’s 2008 flood covered elsewhere on this site.

Sources