Ruth, Alabama

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Arab census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35016. It stands on Perkins Creek. The Survey maps it on the Hulaco quadrangle. It stands 974 feet above sea level.

Ruth within Marshall County

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 20 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1888 USGS Cullman quadrangle1:125000
1892 USGS Cullman quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
1936 USGS Hulaco quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS Hulaco quadrangle1:24000
1952 USGS Hulaco quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1956 USGS Gadsden quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Gadsden quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Gadsden quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1963 USGS Gadsden quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Hulaco quadrangle1:24000
1976 USGS Hulaco quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Guntersville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

35 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of Ruth between 1995 and 2019, burning about 240 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Arson/incendiarism	6
Recreation and ceremony	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Smoking	1
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 1998	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
5 September 1995	Recreation and ceremony	6.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
26 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190926-6
25 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
24 September 2016	Debris and open burning	1.5 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20160924-20
24 September 2010	Debris and open burning	26 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
12 September 1999	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
15 June 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	20160615-2

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Marshall County

Storms near this place

11 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ruth in 11 storm reports between 2009 and 2023: 9 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 tornado. The reports record 5 deaths and 48 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2011	Tornado (EF4)	Ruth	5 killed, 48 hurt	A violent tornado with peak wind speeds of 190 mph crossed into northwest Marshall County (from Morgan County). The most severe damage occurred on either side of U.S. Highway 231 north of Arab -- particularly in the Ruth community and along Hog Jaw Road -- about 3 miles north of Arab. Along Hog Jaw Road, a large storage shed with farm equipment was destroyed with some of the large machinery tossed 10 to 20 yards around the shed. In the Ruth community, Mount Oak and Frontier Roads were hardest hit where a cinder block/cement home was nearly wiped clean. Debris from a home on Frontier Road was thrown 50 to 100 yards away. A family of 9 was in this house and 5 were killed. A trailer was missing and a metal-bolted garage was wiped clean of its foundation. Along Frontier Road, a large brick home was nearly wiped clean off its foundation with several large trees ripped out of the ground and missing. Further northeast along the path, along Walnut Ridge, a one-story home was severely damaged with the roof missing and a trailer that was tossed into a tree. Several concrete power poles were bent over as the tornado crossed U.S. Highway 231, some bent at the base. One the east side of Highway 231, a gas station building was completely demolished and two gas pumps were ripped from the ground and missing. The canopy over the pumps remained mostly intact.\|\|The tornado continued toward Union Grove. The degree of damage weakened somewhat but several homes had significant damage where the top stories and roofs were destroyed and the external walls had collapsed. Along County Road 240, a double-wide manufactured home was destroyed and a large garage collapsed but the well-built roof remained intact.\|\|The tornado significantly weakened as it crossed the Tennessee River. On the other side of the river, the tornado snapped and uprooted numerous trees as it crossed Walker Road and just across U.S. Highway 431 before lifting just northeast of Highway 431.
December 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$50,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across the county.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$8,000	Trees were reported blown down on Freeport Lane and Matt Morrow Road.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$4,000	Trees were reported down on Hog Jaw road near Arab.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$2,000	A tree was blown down onto a house on Matt Morrow road.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$2,000	A tree was blown down along Matt Morrow Road.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$1,000	Trees were knocked down in the Ruth area.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	$500	A tree was knocked down and blocking Pleasant Valley Road.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	-	Multiple trees were knocked down in different directions about 4 miles northwest of Arab.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Ruth	-	Trees were knocked down onto Fenton Road in the Ruth community.
January 2009	Flash Flood	Ruth	-	Continuing heavy rainfall produced flash flooding one foot deep on Eagle Rock Drive near the Ruth community. Water was reported three feet deep on the shoulder.

Every storm recorded in Marshall County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Egypt	1.8 miles	20
Pine Lake Village	2.1 miles	20
Hog Jaw	2.2 miles	20
Meadowood	2.5 miles	20
Eddy	2.6 miles	20
North Arab	3.1 miles	20
Rice	3.4 miles	20
May Apple (historical)	3.7 miles	20

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Ruth	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q21196592	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 126049. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.