Looking back: 10 years since the floods of 2010

CRANSTON, R.I. (WJAR) — March and April 2010 will forever be remembered for the devastating floods that inundated Rhode Island.

22 of the 27 long-term sites that measure the state’s rivers and streams exceeded their previous records.

This flooding was brought on by a series of rain events through February and March, which kept rivers and streams high right through the end of March.

The culmination of these successive rainfall events occurred from March 29 to 31, when 6 to 10 inches of rain fell over Rhode Island. That pushed the monthly total to over 16 inches of rain!

The result: record river flooding across much of Rhode Island. The Pawtuxet River in Cranston, a location monitored with a river gage since 1939, had already broken a record in the middle of March, but that was only the beginning.

This record crest of 15 feet was smashed at the end of March by an additional 6 feet. The Pawtuxet River eventually crested at 20.79 feet, well above the start of flood stage at 9 feet.

The Warwick Mall was under 2 feet of water.

In Cranston, I-95 was shut down along with the Airport Connector.

No part of RI was spared from this event. In Westerly, the Pawcatuck River reached a new record level, above the storm surge from the 1938 Hurricane.

The Pawcatuck River was so severely impacted that it did not recede below flood stage until April 12. In Westerly, a mile of train track in Westerly was inundated, resulting in a suspension of Amtrak services.

In addition, Chapman Pond was flooded so badly that it effectively shut down Route 91 and Pound Road, causing prolonged blocked access to an entire neighborhood.

A flood such as this is termed a 100-year flood, but what does that mean? Essentially, a significant flood such as 2010 has only a 1 percent chance to happen in any given year.

Because the Pawtuxet River at Cranston set two record crests in the same month, it experienced rainfall consistent with two 100-year floods in a short time. The odds of this happening are very low, at 0.01 percent.

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