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Rapids, New York

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Lockport town. It lies in ZIP code area 14094. The Survey maps it on the Clarence Center quadrangle. 1,584 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 591 feet above sea level.

Rapids within Niagara County

Then and now

1897 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 87 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Rapids, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Rapids, surveyed 1897

Population over time

2 figures

Rapids fell from 1,636 to 1,584 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,636
20201,584-52 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 27 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.

Fires near this place

157 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 157 fires within 5 miles of Rapids between 2000 and 2019, burning about 103 acres in total. 13 started naturally. 12 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined94
Debris and open burning22
Natural13
Arson/incendiarism12
Smoking11
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Equipment and vehicle use1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2003Smokingunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
5 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
5 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
5 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
4 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
28 September 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
25 September 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
2 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Niagara County

Storms near this place

4 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rapids in 4 storm reports between 2007 and 2013: 4 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2007FloodRapids$25,000no account filed
December 2013FloodRapids$20,000Tonawanda Creek at Rapids crested at 15.13 feet at 13:15 EST on 12/24/2013. Flood Stage is 12 feet.
March 2010FloodRapids$15,000no account filed
March 2009FloodRapids$10,000no account filed

Every storm recorded in Niagara 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Raymond1.5 miles27
Dysinger4.3 miles27
Shooktown4.4 miles28
South Lockport4.6 miles28
Pendleton4.7 miles27
Lockport5.6 miles28
Carlisle Gardens5.6 miles28
Terrys Corners5.7 miles27

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 RapidsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3461268The 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 962191. 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.