This Day in RI History: March 31, 2010, Record-breaking floods devastate the region

by Ken Abrams

Where were you during the flood of 2010? You may recall that the flooding crippled parts of the state and shut down the Warwick Mall and other businesses for months.

The National Weather Service explained what happened.

Pre-existing elevated river levels and saturated soil conditions from recent heavy rainfall combined with another round of significant rain to produce record flooding along the Pawtuxet River in Rhode Island from late March through early April 2010. The Pawtuxet River at Cranston, RI crested at 20.79 ft on Wednesday, March 31st 2010. This crest surpassed the previous record crest of 15.1 ft,which occurred just 1.5 weeks prior to this event at Cranston. Many roads were closed in the West Warwick and Cranston areas. The Warwick mall was flooded, a section of Interstate 95 was closed due to flooding, many streets were closed, bridges were washed away, and many homes and businesses were flooded.

Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri noted at the time, “None of us alive have seen the flooding that we are experiencing now… this is unprecedented in our state’s history.”