Automated baseline from FEMA and NOAA data, release 2026-10.

Washington County, RI

Risk-assessment baseline packet. County FIPS 44009. Release 2026-10, data as of 2026-09-30.

Summary

Plan status as of 2026-09-30: No county-level plan row in FEMA data.

Highest expected annual loss (FEMA National Risk Index, modeled total; see B1-a): Inland Flooding ($21,988,034 a year), Hurricane ($3,481,947) and Coastal Flooding ($2,345,028).

The packet's tables are organized by the items of FEMA's Local Mitigation Plan Review Tool, Element B (B1-a to B2-c); the summaries below follow the same order.

Download the packet

Full packet as a web page. File manifest (checksums, source versions).

Plan clock

No county-level plan row in FEMA data

What changed since your last plan

No county-level plan row in FEMA data, so there is no approval date to count from.

Plan status for every jurisdiction listed in this county

10 jurisdictions. Each row is that jurisdiction's own plan clock.

JurisdictionTypeStatusPlanApprovedExpiresDays to expirynegative = days since expiry
Charlestown townTownApproved, expires 2030-11-12Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan Update 2025 Charlestown, Rhode Island (FEMA plan 110911)2025-11-132030-11-121,504
Exeter townTownApproved, expires 2030-08-20Towns of Exeter and West Greenwich, RI 2025 Hazard Mitigation and Floodplain Management Plan Update (FEMA plan 111030)2025-08-212030-08-201,420
Hopkinton townTownApproved, expires 2029-04-232024 Hopkinton Hazard Mitigation and Flood Management Plan Update (FEMA plan 109524)2024-04-242029-04-23936
Narragansett townTownApproved, expires 2029-09-24Strategy for Reducing Risks from Natural Hazards in Narragansett, Rhode Island: A Multi-Hazard Mitigation Strategy (FEMA plan 109838)2024-09-252029-09-241,090
New Shoreham townTownApproved, expires 2030-05-28Town of New Shoreham 2025 Hazard Mitigation & Flood Management Plan (FEMA plan 110784)2025-05-292030-05-281,336
North Kingstown townTownApproved, expires 2030-08-19Town of North Kingstown Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan (FEMA plan 110653)2025-08-202030-08-191,419
Richmond townTownApproved, expires 2027-09-13Richmond, RI Hazard Mitigation Plan 2022 Update (FEMA plan 108289)2022-09-142027-09-13348
South Kingstown townTownApproved, expires 2031-07-06South Kingstown, Rhode Island Hazard Mitigation Plan 2026 Update (FEMA plan 111799)2026-07-072031-07-061,740
Westerly townTownApproved, expires 2028-03-21Town of Westerly 2023 Hazard Mitigation & Flood Management Plan (FEMA plan 108927)2023-03-222028-03-21538
University of Rhode IslandCollege/UniversityApproved, expires 2028-12-122023 Hazard Mitigation Plan, University of Rhode Island (FEMA plan 109186)2023-12-132028-12-12804

State plan status and tribal plans in this state: see the state page.

What the packet contains

Sections in FEMA checklist order; each heading names the review item its tables support. Full tables are in the downloads above.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-a Hazard identification

16 of the 18 National Risk Index hazards apply here.

Not applicable to this county per NRI, with no federal declaration and no Storm Events record since 1996: avalanche and volcanic activity. That is the evidence for leaving them out of the plan.

Highest expected annual loss (NRI, modeled): Inland Flooding, Hurricane and Coastal Flooding.

Not covered by NRI (local data needed): dam failure (incl. upstream dams); levee failure; flash flood as its own subtype; ice jams; debris flows; erosion (riverine and coastal); land subsidence and sinkholes; expansive soils.

The state hazard mitigation plan also lists hazards for this county; FEMA asks the plan to explain any hazard it leaves out.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-b Hazard location

  • Coastal Flooding and Inland Flooding: the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) is the required location source for flooding. See the FEMA Flood Map Service Center (https://msc.fema.gov) for this county.
  • Cold Wave, Drought, Hail, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather: affects the whole county; national data give no location within it.
  • Earthquake, Hurricane, Landslide, Tornado, Tsunami and Wildfire vary within the county; the packet lists the highest-rated census tracts for each.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-c Hazard extent

Storm Events records for 11 of the 20 NOAA event-type groups mapped to the 18 hazards, with the scale, observed range and worst recorded event for each; the others say which local data are needed.

Worst recorded tornado, hail and thunderstorm wind (the three event types on record since the 1950s; the packet has every group):

  • Hail: 2.75 in hail, 1998-06-30
  • Thunderstorm Wind: 100 kt (115 mph), measurement type not recorded, Thunderstorm Wind, 1990-10-18
  • Tornado: EF1 tornado, 2021-11-13, 1.1 mi within this county, 100 yd wide, $50,000 property; $0 crops (2021 dollars)

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-d Previous occurrences

Federal declarations for this area: 25 declarations covering 18 separate hazard incidents counted in this packet; each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.

No county-level plan row in FEMA data, so there is no approval date to count from.

2 statewide declarations listed separately.

Hazards with no Storm Events record and no federal declaration are stated as such (7 of 18).

Storm Events history: 367 records (notable ones in the PDF, all of them in the Excel file).

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-e Probability of future events

FEMA annualized frequency (modeled) for each hazard, with a descriptor from a scale defined in the packet.

  • Highly likely: Coastal Flooding, Hail, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather
  • Likely: Hurricane, Inland Flooding, Landslide and Tornado
  • Possible: Drought and Heat Wave

Historical frequency by intensity band (tornado, hail, wind): 9 bands from Storm Events.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-f Hazards that vary across jurisdictions

Range of census tract risk scores within the area for 16 of the 18 hazards (29 tracts; rated tracts only).

9 jurisdictions: plan clock, repeat-flood count, Public Assistance dollars and event records naming the place (starting figures from federal data).

County Public Assistance in B1-d also includes applicants filed under the county that are not jurisdictions in this plan (for example state agencies, special districts and nonprofits), so the jurisdiction rows add up to less.

Supports FEMA checklist items B2-a and B2-b Vulnerability and potential impacts

The packet's table gives county-level starting figures; the plan describes impacts for each jurisdiction and its own assets.

No county-level plan row in FEMA data, so there is no approval date to count from.

Local data needed

To gather:

  • Critical facilities and lifelines per hazard
  • A problem statement per jurisdiction per hazard
  • Changes in development in hazard-prone areas since the last approval, or a statement of none (E1-a)
  • Future assets

Supports FEMA checklist item B2-a Vulnerability (county context)

Population 129,802; building value $33,580,965,561 and agriculture value $28,571,687 (total, not at risk).

National Risk Index rating Relatively Low; social vulnerability Very Low; community resilience Very High.

Supports FEMA checklist item B2-c Repetitive loss properties

Repetitive-loss properties, FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 12 repetitive loss, 35 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 122 and 24.

Mitigated 3; insured 55; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy group and for each jurisdiction are in the packet.

Releases

Each release is dated; this is release 2026-10. It was first published 2026-09-30; its files do not change. Later releases will be listed here with what changed between them. All releases.

Cite this

Hazard Plain (2026). Washington County, RI: risk-assessment baseline packet, release 2026-10 (data as of 2026-09-30; County FIPS 44009). Automated baseline. https://hazardplain.org/ri/44009/ Built from FEMA OpenFEMA, the FEMA National Risk Index and NOAA NCEI Storm Events; source versions in the packet's Sources list.

Source citations for the plan's bibliography (8)

How this packet is built: methods and sources