Stonington Borough Hurricane Risk: What's Known, What Isn't
Stonington Borough is a small, separately governed historic district of about 976 residents packed into 0.7 square miles, roughly half of it water, sitting inside the much larger Town of Stonington (18,335 residents, 50 square miles). That distinction matters for hurricane research: a lot of dramatic regional storm history gets told as "Stonington" when it actually happened in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, just across the state line, or refers to the broader town rather than the Borough peninsula itself. This page keeps those separate on purpose. The one genuinely Borough-specific, dated hurricane record found in this research is preparation reporting from Hurricane Irene in 2011, not a damage account. No Borough-specific damage or casualty figures were found for the 1938 hurricane, Hurricane Sandy, or Hurricane Gloria despite direct searching, and this page says so rather than borrowing a number from somewhere else. What follows is what's actually confirmed, what's regional context only, and where to go for current evacuation and preparedness guidance -- not a substitute for official emergency-management information.
A Peninsula Built for Water Exposure
Stonington Borough occupies just 0.7 square miles, and roughly half of that is water -- the Borough is a peninsula jutting out into Fishers Island Sound and Little Narragansett Bay, with Stonington Harbor forming its sheltered inner side. That geography is the reason hurricane exposure is worth taking seriously here: unlike inland sections of the Town of Stonington, the Borough has open water on multiple sides and comparatively little land buffer between any given house and the sound.
That same geography is why the Borough has its own Board of Warden and Burgesses -- currently Warden Michael Schefers and Burgesses Amy Nicholas, Amanda Barnes, Kevin Rogers, and Kevin Bowdler -- governing the Borough itself, distinct from the Town of Stonington government that handles the wider 50-square-mile municipality. For hurricane preparedness and evacuation, both layers matter: the Borough for very local coordination, and the Town for the broader emergency-management resources -- shelters, road closures, larger-scale evacuation planning -- that a small borough government would not run on its own.
1938: A Region-Defining Storm, But the Worst of It Was in Rhode Island
The 1938 Great New England Hurricane is the benchmark storm for this entire stretch of coastline, and it deserves to be described vividly -- but readers should know upfront that its most catastrophic local damage happened in Rhode Island, not in Stonington Borough itself. Per a Patch retrospective, the storm surge peaked around 50 feet in "the Stonington-Watch Hill area," and the destruction concentrated at Napatree Point, a barrier peninsula in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, just across the state line from the Borough. Roughly 40 houses on Fort Road at Napatree Point were obliterated, and nobody has been permitted to rebuild there since. The Watch Hill lighthouse itself survived the storm but flooded.
One account from that retrospective describes a New London-area family whose Fort Road house detached in the surge and rode the wave roughly two miles inland, coming to rest in a Stonington cornfield, with the family sheltering inside the floating attic as it traveled. It is a genuinely dramatic story about this exact stretch of coastline in 1938 -- but it is a Watch Hill, Rhode Island house and a Rhode Island family, landing in Stonington farmland, not a documented account of damage to the Borough itself. No Borough-specific 1938 damage or casualty figure was found in this research, so none is stated here. Treat this section as regional context for how severe storm surge can get on this particular peninsula system, not as a Stonington Borough damage record.
Hurricane Irene, 2011: The Real, Dated, Borough-Specific Record
The closest thing to an actual Stonington Borough-specific hurricane data point in this research is preparation reporting from Hurricane Irene, which made landfall on August 27, 2011. Per Patch's "Borough battens down" coverage from that storm, Borough residents and business owners nailed plywood over windows, placed sandbags in doorways, and a mandatory evacuation was ordered for the borough area effective 6pm ahead of landfall. Roughly 21 houses were boarded up in the Borough between the Wednesday and the Saturday before the storm hit, and nearly 40 boats were hauled out of the water for protection -- a meaningful share of the Borough's small housing stock and working waterfront responding to a single approaching storm. State Senator Andrew Maynard commended the level of preparation at the time.
It is worth being precise about what this record does and does not show: it is preparation and evacuation-order reporting, not a post-storm damage or dollar-loss account. No damage total for the Borough from Irene was found in this research. Still, the specificity of the mandatory evacuation timing, the boarded-house count, and the boat-hauling number make this the single most concrete, Borough-specific, dated hurricane data point available -- a real illustration of how seriously this small peninsula community takes an approaching storm, even without a matching damage figure to close the loop.
Sandy and Gloria: The Honest Gap
Two other storms that affected this region -- Hurricane Sandy (2012) and Hurricane Gloria (1985) -- turned up no Stonington Borough-specific, or even Town of Stonington-specific, damage figures in this research, despite searching directly for both. That absence should not be read as evidence the Borough was spared either storm; a peninsula with half its area as water and direct exposure to Fishers Island Sound would reasonably be expected to feel some effect from a major regional hurricane or a significant nor'easter-adjacent storm like Sandy. But a reasonable expectation is not a sourced figure, and this page will not manufacture one to sound more complete than the record supports.
If a Borough- or town-specific damage account exists for Sandy or Gloria in local historical-society archives, insurance-industry records, or town emergency-management files, it was not surfaced in this research pass. Anyone weighing a property purchase around storm risk from those two specific events should treat that as an open question worth asking the Town of Stonington directly, not as a settled "no damage" conclusion.
What Current Evacuation and Preparedness Guidance Actually Looks Like
This research did not turn up a specific, current hurricane evacuation zone designation for Stonington Borough -- evacuation zones are periodically revised, and stating one here risks it being wrong by the time it is read. The right move for anyone who wants that information is direct: check the Borough and Town of Stonington's current evacuation zone status with the Town of Stonington's emergency management office, and follow guidance from Connecticut's Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) for statewide hurricane preparedness, evacuation timing, and shelter information.
Given the 2011 Irene record above, it is reasonable to expect that a comparable storm approaching today would again mean a Borough-specific evacuation order, window boarding, and boat-hauling on a similar timeline -- the Borough's small size and peninsula geography have not changed. But the specific zone designation, current shelter locations, and this decade's emergency-management protocols should come from the Town and DESPP directly, not from a 2011 news account.
What This Page Cannot Tell You
To be direct about the limits of the record: this page does not state a Stonington Borough-specific damage figure, casualty count, or dollar loss for the 1938 hurricane, Hurricane Sandy, or Hurricane Gloria, because none was found despite thorough searching. The vivid 1938 Napatree Point account above describes Watch Hill, Rhode Island, not the Borough, even though it happened on the same stretch of coastline and one storm-tossed house reportedly landed in a Stonington cornfield.
It also does not state a current, specific hurricane evacuation zone for the Borough, since none was confirmed in this research. For that, and for current shelter, road-closure, and preparedness information, go directly to the Town of Stonington's emergency management office and Connecticut's Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP). Nothing on this page is a substitute for official emergency-management guidance, and no reader should rely on it for real-time storm decisions -- it is historical and structural context for evaluating hurricane exposure when considering property here, nothing more.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Stonington Borough is confirmed as a separately governed historic borough of 976 residents (2020) across 0.7 square miles inside the much larger Town of Stonington (18,335 residents, 50.0 square miles) -- the two are kept distinct throughout this page, and Mystic-specific facts are deliberately excluded. The 1938 Great New England Hurricane account (roughly 50-foot storm surge described in a Patch retrospective as striking "the Stonington-Watch Hill area," the destruction of roughly 40 houses on Fort Road at Napatree Point in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, the ongoing rebuilding ban there since 1938, the Watch Hill lighthouse surviving but flooding, and the account of a Fort Road house riding storm surge roughly two miles inland into a Stonington cornfield with a family sheltering in its floating attic) is sourced to that Patch retrospective and is presented explicitly as Rhode Island/regional context, not as Stonington Borough-specific damage -- no Borough-specific 1938 damage or casualty figure was found. Hurricane Irene's Borough-specific preparation record (plywood over windows, sandbags in doorways, a mandatory evacuation ordered by 6pm for the borough area, roughly 21 houses boarded up between the Wednesday and Saturday before the August 27, 2011 landfall, nearly 40 boats hauled from the water, and State Senator Andrew Maynard's commendation of the preparation) is sourced to Patch's "Borough battens down" article and is preparation reporting only -- no post-storm damage or dollar figure for the Borough from Irene was found. Despite direct searching, no Stonington Borough-specific or Town of Stonington-specific damage figures were found for Hurricane Sandy (2012) or Hurricane Gloria (1985); those gaps are disclosed rather than filled with invented figures. Geography (0.7 square miles, roughly half water, a peninsula into Fishers Island Sound and Little Narragansett Bay, with Stonington Harbor on the inner side) and governance (the Borough's Board of Warden and Burgesses -- Warden Michael Schefers and Burgesses Amy Nicholas, Amanda Barnes, Kevin Rogers, and Kevin Bowdler -- sitting within the larger Town of Stonington's government) are drawn from the Borough's own public records. No current, specific hurricane evacuation zone designation for the Borough was confirmed in this research. For current evacuation-zone status, shelter information, and hurricane preparedness guidance, consult the Town of Stonington's emergency management office and Connecticut's Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) directly. Nothing on this page is a substitute for official emergency-management guidance.