Which Maryland Hazard Mitigation Plans Expire Next? The 2026–⁠2028 Calendar

Nine of Maryland's local hazard mitigation plans expire in 2028, and FEMA's records show no update under way for any of them. They cover 38 counties, cities and towns, home to about 2.1 million people by the population figures in FEMA's plan records, from Baltimore City and Prince George's County to Dorchester and Somerset on the Eastern Shore. FEMA's 2025 Local Mitigation Planning Handbook tells communities to allow at least 18 months from kickoff to approval and to pursue funding no later than the plan's third year.

For most of those nine, the funding window has closed and the start date is months away. Four have already passed it.

If your Maryland plan expires in 2028, the update should be funded now and started by mid-2027 at the latest. The calendar below lists every Maryland plan expiring through 2028, with its start-by and funding dates, from FEMA's records on November 2, 2026.

We track these dates because we built the tool that shows them. CF Labs, Council Fire's software studio, turned FEMA's daily plan records into a public hazard mitigation plan tracker. Council Fire, a certified B Corp since 2010, was an implementation and stakeholder engagement partner for Phase I of the Annapolis Maritime Resilience Initiative, which included 18 months of community engagement on its own. Schedules slip at the public involvement stage more than anywhere else.

Why is a plan's expiration date a funding deadline?

Because federal mitigation money follows it. Under 44 CFR 201.6, a local government needs a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan to receive FEMA mitigation project grants, and the plan has to be updated and resubmitted every five years. When a plan lapses, so does the eligibility, until FEMA approves the update.

That eligibility is worth real money now:

• Flood Mitigation Assistance. FEMA's fiscal 2026 round offers up to $400 million, with state applications due February 26, 2027. Maryland's subapplications go through the Maryland Department of Emergency Management; our listing tracks the Maryland route.
• BRIC. FEMA's $1 billion fiscal 2024–25 round closed July 23, 2026 and is still under review, with no new round announced (our listing).
• The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. It opens only after a major disaster declaration, and a county without an approved plan can't receive its project grants when it does (our listing).

The return on that money is well documented: the National Institute of Building Sciences found that federal mitigation grants save $6 in future disaster costs for every $1 spent. An expired plan doesn't stop a county from building resilience, but it takes FEMA's share off the table.

Which Maryland plans expire next?

Sixteen Maryland plans expire in 2027 or 2028, and one has already lapsed. Plans are county plans unless noted; the number after each is how many jurisdictions it covers. "Start by" is 18 months before expiration, FEMA's minimum timeline from kickoff to approval. "Funding by" is the end of the plan's third year, 24 months before expiration, when FEMA's handbook says the update should be scoped and its funding pursued.

Worcester County's plan, which also covers Berlin, Pocomoke City and Snow Hill, expired October 5, 2025, and its update is in progress. Ocean City has its own plan.

Who this is for: county and municipal emergency managers, planners and the officials who sign grant applications. Each plan name opens its page on our Maryland tracker, which refreshes from FEMA's data daily. Nationally, the same records show 560 plans covering 4,681 jurisdictions expiring within a year, on our national tracker.

Four plans are past FEMA's start date. What now?

Dorchester, St. Mary's, Somerset and Carroll counties' plans expire between January and April 2028. Counting back FEMA's 18 months put their start dates between July and October 2026, and FEMA's records showed none of them in progress on November 2.

That doesn't prove nothing is happening: FEMA's "in progress" flag depends on what the state reports, and a county may be hiring help now. It does mean the margin is gone.

A late start can still finish in time if the steps overlap instead of running in sequence:

1. Procure and prepare at once. Gather hazard data, capability information and progress on the last plan's actions while the contract is in procurement, so the consultant or team starts on analysis, not data requests.
2. Book the review time first. FEMA's handbook says to budget at least six months for state and FEMA review. Work back from expiration minus six months, and talk to the Maryland Department of Emergency Management early about its review queue.
3. Refresh what still holds. The handbook requires the whole planning process again, but it lets a team validate parts of the last plan "with fewer major changes" rather than rewrite them. Spend the saved time on public involvement, which can't be shortened.
4. Schedule every adoption vote. Each participating jurisdiction has to adopt the plan. Dorchester's covers 10, so put the council and commission dates on the calendar before the draft exists.

Who this is for: emergency managers in those four counties, and in any jurisdiction whose plan expires within 18 months without an update under way.

What should the counties already updating watch for?

All six Maryland plans that expire in 2027 show an update in progress in FEMA's records. Frederick County held a virtual kickoff on February 10, 2026 and expects its updated plan in 2027, according to county minutes. Worcester County is the cautionary case: its plan lapsed in October 2025, and the update held public meetings in August and September 2026.

Two parts of an update are easy to underestimate, and both decide whether a plan pays off:

• Public involvement. 44 CFR 201.6(b) requires a chance for the public to comment while the plan is drafted and before it's approved. A comment window meets the rule; reaching the residents who don't come to meetings takes longer, and it's what makes the mitigation actions credible.
• Funding the actions. A mitigation action without a funding path stays on the page. Our guide to hazard mitigation plan implementation covers turning the action table into funded projects, and how to prioritize climate resilience projects covers which to fund first.

Who this is for: planning teams in Baltimore, Wicomico, Frederick, Talbot, Harford, Cecil and Worcester counties, and Ocean City.

What does an on-time update look like?

Counted back from the expiration date, FEMA's guidance implies a schedule like this one:

On that schedule, Annapolis, Prince George's, Howard, Baltimore City and Washington County are at the 20-to-25-month mark now: the funding window is closing or has closed, and kickoff should come by mid-2027. Howard County's current plan runs to November 5, 2028. Baltimore City's hazard mitigation plan is part of its Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project, which pairs it with climate adaptation.

Who this is for: jurisdictions with plans expiring in 2028 and 2029, which are in the scoping and funding years now.

How do you pay for the update and the projects in it?

FEMA's mitigation programs pay for planning as well as projects, through the state. Maryland adds sources of its own, several with dates this winter:

• The Maryland Department of Natural Resources' Community Flood Planning grants fund flood risk assessments, adaptation strategies and early design. Coastal-track applications are due December 11, 2026, and the Western and Central Maryland track prefers applications by December 4.
• The Maryland Department of the Environment's Comprehensive Flood Management Grant pays for capital flood mitigation for counties and municipalities. MDE says it reopens in December 2026.
• The Maryland Department of Emergency Management's Resilient Maryland Revolving Loan Fund lends to local governments for hazard mitigation projects, taking notices of interest year-round.

Our Maryland resilience funding hub lists 28 programs with their status and deadlines, re-checked against the agencies' own pages each month. Before applying, our free funding readiness scorecard flags the hard stops, including an expired plan. For the plan itself, our guide to writing an RFP for a hazard mitigation plan update covers scope, budget and evaluation.

How we built this calendar

The dates come from FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Plan Statuses dataset (OpenFEMA, version 1), retrieved November 2, 2026. We group jurisdictions by the plan they share, take each plan's expiration date from FEMA's records, and count back 18 months for "start by" and 24 months for "funding by," following FEMA's handbook. "Update in progress" means FEMA lists a newer plan record for the jurisdiction as in progress; it depends on what the state reports, so a county can be further along than the record shows. Population figures are FEMA's.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Related Resources

Plan status and the update

• Hazard mitigation plan tracker: every U.S. jurisdiction's plan status from FEMA's data.
• Maryland hazard mitigation plans: the state's plans, county by county.
• How to write an RFP for a hazard mitigation plan update: scope, budget and evaluation.
• Hazard mitigation plan implementation: from action table to funded projects.
• Maryland county climate risk profiles: the hazards behind each plan.

Funding

• Maryland resilience funding hub: 28 programs, re-checked monthly.
• Flood Mitigation Assistance: the fiscal 2026 round and Maryland's route.
• Community Flood Planning grants: Maryland DNR's flood planning money.
• Resilience funding readiness scorecard: 18 questions, with the hard stops flagged.
• Navigating federal climate funding in 2026: a playbook for municipalities.
• Funding resilience without federal grants: sources for the years between grants.

Delivering the plan

• How to prioritize climate resilience projects: which actions to fund first.
• How to build resilience into your capital improvement plan: getting projects into the budget.
• What is a resilience authority?: a financing vehicle Maryland counties have used.
• Annapolis Maritime Resilience Initiative: from 38 sites of concern to ten concept designs.
• Aptation: the resilience planning and delivery platform CF Labs built.

Bring us your expiration date

Tell us your plan's expiration date and where the update stands. We'll map the schedule back from that date, show which programs your projects could compete for and when, and say what belongs in the scope. Talk to us on our contact page and choose Climate resilience.

About the Author

George Chmael II is Council Fire's Founder & CEO. He has led the firm since its founding and through its B Corp certification in 2010. Council Fire's climate resilience practice works with cities, counties, ports and authorities on planning, funding and delivery, and CF Labs builds the software that holds that work together.

Written by

George Chmael II

Founder & CEO

Corporate lawyer turned social entrepreneur, guiding organizations toward three bottom lines for 25+ years.

Full bio →All 87 articles by George →

From the library

• Topic hubFunding Climate Resilience→
• RFP guideHow to Write an RFP for a Resilience Funding Strategy→
• County profilesMaryland Climate Risk by County→

Around The Fire, in your inbox.

New articles on climate resilience, sustainable business and the end of extraction, sent when they publish.

Email addressSubscribe