CRANSTON, R.I. -- A sudden storm taxed the drainage system on Oaklawn Avenue Monday, sending sheets of water into the Dean Estate apartments, city officials said Tuesday.
About 3 to 4 inches of rain fell in an hour or less in the area, officials said.
The water came from different directions and knocked down first-floor doors, sending one tenant to the hospital.
The apartment owner, city officials and other groups are trying to find homes for the 60 people forced to leave the complex, Mayor Allan Fung said.
Fung said no one was at fault. Officials have no recent record of flooding in the area, he said.
"This was Mother Nature," he said. No drainage system is designed to withstand that kind of flooding, he said.
"It's a highly interconnected system," said Public Works Director Kenneth R. Mason. "We have to find where the choke points are."