Coastal Insurance in Scarborough, Jerusalem, and Galilee: What Is Actually Confirmed

Geography First: A Working Waterfront Within Narragansett, Not a Separate Town

Scarborough, Jerusalem, and Galilee are villages inside the Town of Narragansett, Rhode Island -- the same town this site covers in depth at its own Narragansett pages. What sets this specific corner apart is exposure: Galilee is home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in Rhode Island and is the departure point for the Block Island Ferry; Jerusalem sits across the harbor from Galilee at the east end of East Matunuck State Beach; and Scarborough is home to Scarborough State Beach, a two-section state beach complex directly on the open Atlantic. All three sit on genuinely open ocean or sound water rather than sheltered bay or river frontage, which is the reason this page exists as a separate, deeper look at insurance-relevant facts for this stretch specifically.

One structural detail worth knowing before anything else: per Wikipedia's dedicated Jerusalem, Rhode Island entry, Jerusalem is not connected by land to the rest of Narragansett at all -- its only land border is with the Matunuck section of neighboring South Kingstown. As a direct consequence, fire and police service in Jerusalem is provided by South Kingstown, not by Narragansett, even though Jerusalem is legally part of Narragansett. That kind of cross-town emergency-response arrangement is a real, checkable governmental fact, and it is the sort of thing worth asking a local agent about directly, since response times and jurisdiction can matter to how a carrier underwrites a property.

What This Research Did Not Find: No Confirmed Flood Zone or Premium Figure

To be direct about it: this research did not turn up a specific, sourced FEMA flood-zone designation, NFIP premium figure, or storm-surge statistic for Scarborough, Jerusalem, or Galilee that would be honest to publish here. Given that all three sit directly on open Atlantic or Block Island Sound water, it would be easy to guess at a zone designation or a premium range, but this page will not do that. Any flood-insurance figure quoted for a specific address here needs to come from an actual FEMA flood-map pull for that parcel, not a village-wide estimate.

If you are evaluating a specific property in this area, start with FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) for the parcel's current flood-zone designation, and get a written flood-insurance quote from a Rhode Island-licensed insurance agent before you assume a cost. A parcel directly on Scarborough State Beach, one on Galilee's harbor, and one on Jerusalem's Point Judith Pond side could plausibly carry meaningfully different flood exposure, which is exactly why a parcel-specific check matters more here than a general disclaimer can convey.

Real, Dated Storm Evidence: The March 2017 Turbine Collapse at Port of Galilee

Rather than a vague warning about storm risk, there is a specific, dated, sourced example of this area's exposure. Per Wikipedia's Galilee, Rhode Island entry, a 100-foot wind turbine at the Port of Galilee was toppled on March 14, 2017, when an intense winter storm's high winds snapped the turbine's supporting metal structure in half, causing widespread local power outages. That is a real, checkable event at this exact port, not a generic coastal-storm claim, and it is the kind of concrete precedent worth raising with an insurance agent when discussing wind and named-storm coverage for a property in this area.

Separately, a 2017 press release from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's office references Rhode Island receiving funds to continue infrastructure improvements at the Port of Galilee that same year. Treat that as an earlier, distinct funding round from the much larger 2024 resilience grant described below -- there is no confirmed continuity between the two beyond both involving the same port.

A Current, Dollar-Specific Resilience Investment: The November 2024 FEMA/DEM Grant

This is a genuinely useful, current fact for anyone thinking about insurance and resilience in this area. Per a November 25, 2024 press release from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Rhode Island was awarded $15.5 million from FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, matched with state funds for a total $17.2 million project, specifically to strengthen climate resilience at state marine facilities. The project will elevate structures at the Port of Galilee and the Wickford Dock, and will replace a total of eight docks across three DEM marine facilities: the Port of Galilee, the Division of Marine Fisheries' Jerusalem facility, and the Division of Law Enforcement's Wickford Marine Base.

Two things are worth pulling out of that press release. First, it independently confirms that Jerusalem has its own named DEM Division of Marine Fisheries facility, distinct from Galilee's own docks across the harbor -- a real, specific piece of Jerusalem infrastructure. Second, a state agency putting $17.2 million toward elevating structures and replacing docks at exactly these facilities is itself a signal about the flood and storm exposure this stretch of coastline is understood to carry by the people who manage it -- context worth bringing up with an agent, even though it is not a substitute for a parcel-specific flood determination.

Jerusalem: Land-Locked by Geography, Served by a Different Town for Emergencies

As noted above, Jerusalem's only land connection is through South Kingstown's Matunuck section, and South Kingstown -- not Narragansett -- provides its fire and police service. A separate, lower-confidence source describes Jerusalem's land isolation as tracing back to the digging of the Point Judith Breachway, reportedly around 1910-1914, and describes a causeway along Succotash Road as Jerusalem's sole land link, one that source says is vulnerable to flooding during nor'easters and hurricanes. That source is an AI-generated reference work rather than a peer-reviewed or editorially curated one, and this research could not independently confirm the specific date range, the causeway name, or a population/density figure attributed to it through a second, more authoritative source -- so treat those specifics as reported, not confirmed, even though the general shape of the story (a breachway having been dug in that era) has some independent support from a Rhode Island Historical Society bibliography entry.

What is confirmed, plainly: Jerusalem is a real village that depends on a neighboring town's emergency responders because of its own geography. That is worth raising directly with a local insurance agent, since response times and which department has jurisdiction can be part of how a property is underwritten, separate from the flood-zone question entirely.

Seasonal and Vacation-Property Character: What the Vacancy Data Suggests

This corner of Narragansett has something the town-wide data does not: a real, named, village-level real estate source. NeighborhoodScout's own "Galilee & Jerusalem" neighborhood profile reports a median home price of $1,091,913 and an average rental price of $3,012 per month for that specific area, alongside a vacancy rate of 43.4% and 39.6% of housing described as seasonally occupied. Those last two figures are the ones most relevant to insurance: a large share of housing here is not lived in year-round, which is exactly the kind of profile where an insurer may ask about vacancy periods, seasonal-occupancy endorsements, or whether a policy is written as a primary residence, a seasonal home, or a rental property.

NeighborhoodScout is a commercial, largely automated real-estate-and-demographic data aggregator, not a government statistical agency, so its precise figures should be treated as a real, named, citable estimate rather than Census-grade fact. Still, the general picture -- a village where close to two out of five homes sit seasonally unoccupied for part of the year -- is exactly the kind of detail worth mentioning to an agent up front, since it can change what coverage is available or required.

Property Taxes: The Same Confirmed Rate as the Rest of Narragansett

Scarborough, Jerusalem, and Galilee are taxed under the Town of Narragansett's own rate, not a separate village rate. Per the Rhode Island Division of Municipal Finance's FY2026 Tax Rates document, Narragansett's residential real estate rate is $6.79 per $1,000 of assessed value, with commercial and personal property both at $9.17 per $1,000 -- a figure this site's Narragansett hub pages cover in more depth, including comparisons to neighboring towns. That confirmed carrying cost is worth keeping in mind alongside insurance costs when budgeting for a property in this area, even though the tax rate itself has no bearing on flood-zone determination.

What This Page Cannot Tell You -- Confirm Directly Before You Buy

To restate it plainly: this page can confirm that Scarborough, Jerusalem, and Galilee are ocean- and harbor-facing villages within Narragansett, a real 2017 storm event that damaged port infrastructure, a real $17.2 million 2024 resilience investment aimed at exactly this area's docks and structures, Jerusalem's unusual reliance on South Kingstown for emergency response, NeighborhoodScout's vacancy and seasonal-occupancy figures for Galilee and Jerusalem, and Narragansett's confirmed FY2026 property tax rate. It cannot confirm a flood-zone designation, an NFIP premium, or a storm-surge statistic for any individual parcel, because none of those were found in a form specific and sourced enough to publish here.

Before making a purchase or insurance decision in this part of Narragansett, pull the current flood-zone designation for the specific parcel directly from FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and get a written flood-insurance and homeowners-insurance quote from a Rhode Island-licensed insurance agent for that exact address. Nothing on this page is insurance, legal, or financial advice.