EXTENT AkD Ci;iiiAGT3rt OF T -E FLOOD AREA 



U2. The hurricane of lugust 19Sh (Carol) caused destructive 

 tid$LL flooding along most of the 250-inile shoreline of the Narra- 

 gansett bay area between foint Judith on the west and Sakonnet 

 Point on the east. Flood levels ranged from 9.8 feet above mean 

 'sea level at Nei;port to lli.7 feet above mean sea level at Provi- 

 dence. Flood levels in tie iiurricane of September 1938 were 

 higher by one foot. Some 20,500 acres in the States of Rhode 

 Island and Massachusetts were inundated in each of tie tvro floods. 

 The 1938 flood took more than 250 lives in Rhode Island alone. 

 In the 19Sh hurricane 19 lives were lost in Rhode Island, the 

 majority by drowning in the flooded areas of Narragansett Bay 

 and the south shore. 



By far the principal flood damage center is the city of 

 Providence, where about one-third of the area's population of 

 more than 725,000 reside. In the 195U flood, about 500 acres 

 of the commercial and industrial center of Providence was 

 inundated and damages amounted to aproximately one-third of the 

 total flood damages sustained (see paragraph U3). The remaining 

 two-thirds of the damages are distributed around the eastern and 

 western shor^ines of the bay and in the Massachusetts communities 

 bordering Mount Hope Bay. Tha larger Rliode Island suburban and 

 residential communities on the shorelines are Cranston, l/«arwick, 

 vvarren and Bristol in the Upper Bay and Newport in the Lower Bay. 

 Fall River, Massachusetts is the largest community on Mount Hope 

 Bay. 



The shorefront nas been e:ctensively developed for recreational 

 purposes. In the Lower day, wnere major U. S. Naval installations 

 are loc-ited, losses to 'iaval property have been heavy. For a fuller 

 QiGCUGsion of the exbent and character of the flood area, see 

 ■-oijendix U. 



26 



