Beach Erosion in Misquamicut, Rhode Island: What's Documented, and What's Still Unresolved

A Barrier Beach Between a Pond and the Ocean

Misquamicut occupies a barrier beach: a narrow strip of sand that separates saltwater Winnapaug Pond from the Atlantic. Barrier beaches exist because sand moves — storms pull it offshore, longshore currents redistribute it along the coast, and calmer periods let some of it settle back. That is the physical reality behind every erosion event described on this page, and it is also why the beach behind Atlantic Avenue's motels, restaurants, and Misquamicut State Beach has been actively engineered and re-engineered rather than simply left alone.

That engineering history matters because it shows the state and federal government have already treated erosion here as a public-infrastructure problem, not a cosmetic one. The clearest example is what happened after Superstorm Sandy.

Superstorm Sandy, 2012, and the Army Corps Restoration That Followed

Superstorm Sandy made its final US landfall well to the west, in New Jersey, in October 2012, but it still caused significant erosion at Misquamicut State Beach. The state's immediate response was an emergency measure: relocating roughly 30,000 cubic yards of sand back onto the shoreline.

That emergency fix was followed by a larger, federally funded project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ran a beach erosion control and restoration project, funded through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (PL 113-2), that placed approximately 90,000 cubic yards of sand to rebuild the beach to its authorized design profile — a 150-foot berm at +7.5 feet mean low water, with a 1:15 seaward slope. That project was completed by May 23, 2014.

The Corps' own public notice framed the purpose explicitly: protecting public infrastructure — the bathhouse, parking, and the roadway that serves as an evacuation route, along with utilities — and mitigating backshore flooding during future coastal storms. This was not cosmetic beach-widening; it was infrastructure protection, engineered to a specific design profile, funded as disaster relief.

Erosion Since 2014: A Recurring, Documented Problem

The 2014 restoration was not a permanent fix, and erosion here has continued to be a live, recurring issue rather than a settled one. Per Turn to 10's May 2024 reporting and Westerly Sun coverage into 2025, sand and storm damage regularly wash into Atlantic Avenue's streets even during minor rainstorms — not just major hurricanes — across Misquamicut's roughly three-mile developed shoreline, an area with an estimated 218 homes and 50 businesses exposed to that pattern.

That recurring, minor-storm flooding is the practical, everyday version of "beach erosion" that residents and business owners along Atlantic Avenue actually deal with, distinct from the headline-grabbing damage of a named hurricane. It is also the direct reason a much larger nourishment project has been proposed.

The 2024-2025 Nourishment Proposal: Advocated For, Not Yet Funded

Caswell Cooke, Executive Director of the Misquamicut Business Association, has been the lead public advocate for a large-scale beach nourishment project meant to address that recurring erosion. He pitched the concept to the Westerly Town Council in May 2024 and presented it to state legislators in February 2025. The proposal would extend the shoreline roughly 200 feet seaward by dredging offshore sand and pumping it onto the beach — the same general method used at Virginia Beach and Montauk, New York.

Reported cost estimates run $8 million to $10 million per mile across three miles of shoreline, or roughly $24 million to $30 million total. The Army Corps of Engineers is expected to cover about two-thirds of that cost if the project is authorized, with the remainder falling to state and local funding; Westerly's own share has been estimated at $3 million to $5 million per decade — roughly $300,000 to $500,000 per year — since nourishment of this kind typically needs to be repeated about every ten years, not done once and forgotten.

Cooke has said the full approval process — including congressional authorization through Senator Jack Reed's office and Army Corps feasibility studies — could take as long as four years. As of the most recent reporting found in researching this page (early 2025), this project remained in the proposal and advocacy stage: it had not been funded, authorized, or started, and no construction had begun. Anyone reading this page later than that should search directly for 2026 updates from the Misquamicut Business Association, the Town of Westerly, or Westerly Sun before assuming the project's status has changed.

What This Means If You're Buying or Building Near Atlantic Avenue

Put plainly: this is a barrier beach with a documented history of erosion severe enough to trigger a federally funded, disaster-relief-financed Army Corps restoration once already, in 2012-2014, and a currently unresolved, multi-year public debate over whether to fund a much larger nourishment project to address erosion that has continued since. Neither of those facts should be presented as more settled than they are — the 2014 project is finished and documented; the 2024-2025 proposal is not funded and its timeline, cost-share, and ultimate outcome all remain open questions.

Before buying, insuring, or building on any property near Atlantic Avenue or Misquamicut State Beach, confirm current shoreline-change data and setback rules directly with Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), check FEMA's Flood Map Service Center for an address-specific flood-zone determination, and consult a licensed surveyor or qualified coastal engineer for any property-specific risk assessment. This page is independent research, not an engineering, insurance, or real estate assessment, and it is not a substitute for CRMC, FEMA, a licensed surveyor, or a qualified coastal engineer.