Last updated: · Scores from FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025)
Anne Arundel County's risk profile reads like a split screen. FEMA's model says the losses come from inland flooding, which accounts for $33.3 million of the county's $74.7 million in expected annual losses. The county's grant history points at the tide: $33 million of the $44.6 million FEMA has committed to mitigation here since fiscal 1994 went to a single flood project at Annapolis City Dock.
What drives the risk
Inland flooding leads by a wide margin at 45% of expected losses, followed by hurricanes at 11%, heat waves at 10% and tornadoes at 9%. Coastal flooding ranks ninth, at $2.2 million a year. FEMA's model prices damage to buildings, crops and people, and frequent tidal flooding downtown does more to close streets and businesses than to damage buildings, so a loss model undercounts it.
The county's risk index of 81.9 reflects how much is exposed: $106.9 billion in buildings. Its social vulnerability score is the lowest FEMA gives and its community resilience is in the 89th percentile, which keeps the overall rating at relatively moderate.
Where the mitigation money has gone
The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program supplied $37.4 million of the county's total, most of it through the City Dock grant, which drew on the mitigation funding attached to Maryland's COVID-19 disaster declaration. In March 2026, FEMA released more than $35 million to build the project's flood barriers and drainage upgrades. Congressionally directed Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants added $5.2 million, most of it for Annapolis flood projects. Since fiscal 2020, smaller Flood Mitigation Assistance and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants have paid for Annapolis drainage designs in Eastport and Truxtun Cove, a climate adaptation study for the Shady Side peninsula and a county roadway vulnerability assessment.
The mitigation plan
FEMA approved the county's 2025 plan update for September 8, 2025, through September 7, 2030. The county names repeated flood losses and the protection of community lifelines among its priorities, and it published a separate nuisance flood plan in 2025 for the high-tide flooding the loss model misses.
What we'd look at next
Anne Arundel has something most Maryland counties lack: a Resilience Authority that can plan and finance projects across the county and the City of Annapolis. In Phase I of the Annapolis Maritime Resilience Initiative, residents named 38 sites of concern and 10 moved into preliminary concept design. Choosing among projects like these and matching each to funding is the work we built Resilient & Ready to support through Council Fire Labs. The next test is inland: rain-driven flooding away from the waterfront is the county's largest modeled loss, and outside Annapolis FEMA money has so far paid mostly for studies and plans.
Hazards ranked by expected annual loss
What FEMA expects each hazard to cost Anne Arundel County in an average year, in damage to buildings and crops and in the dollar value it puts on deaths and injuries. Inland flooding leads at $33.3M a year.
- Inland Flooding$33.3M45%
- Hurricane$8.3M11%
- Heat Wave$7.3M10%
- Tornado$7M9%
- Earthquake$3.7M5%
- Strong Wind$3.5M5%
- Cold Wave$2.9M4%
- Lightning$2.6M3%
Of the $74.7M total: buildings $49.6M, people $23.9M, agriculture $1.2M.
All 18 hazards FEMA scores
| Hazard | Expected annual loss | Loss rating | Risk rating | Events on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flooding | $33.32M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 102 |
| Hurricane | $8.28M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 24 |
| Heat Wave | $7.27M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 106 |
| Tornado | $7.04M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 20 |
| Earthquake | $3.75M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Low | — |
| Strong Wind | $3.53M | Relatively High | Relatively High | 235 |
| Cold Wave | $2.93M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 23 |
| Lightning | $2.58M | Relatively High | Relatively High | — |
| Coastal Flooding | $2.2M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | — |
| Winter Weather | $1.3M | Very High | Relatively High | 181 |
| Hail | $1.09M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 139 |
| Drought | $1.06M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 154 |
| Ice Storm | $309K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 24 |
| Wildfire | $33K | Very Low | Very Low | — |
| Landslide | $23K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Avalanche | — | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | — |
| Tsunami | — | Insufficient Data | Insufficient Data | — |
| Volcanic Activity | — | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | — |
FEMA hazard mitigation grants
Projects FEMA has funded in Anne Arundel County through its Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs, as OpenFEMA lists them. Grants to towns and cities inside the county count here; statewide grants don’t.
- Funded projects
- 31
- Federal share
- $44.6M
- Fiscal years
- 1994–2024
By program
- HMGP · Hazard Mitigation Grant Program$37.4M · 11 projects
- LPDM · Legislative Pre-Disaster Mitigation$5.2M · 4 projects
- FMA · Flood Mitigation Assistance$1.2M · 9 projects
- BRIC · Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities$538K · 4 projects
- PDM · Pre-Disaster Mitigation$187K · 3 projects
Most recent projects
FY2024 · LPDM · Obligated$338K
Other Non Construction
Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County
FY2024 · LPDM · Obligated$1.38M
Infrastructure Protective Measures; Community Flood Mitigation Project
City of Annapolis
FY2023 · LPDM · Obligated$3.46M
Infrastructure Protective Measures; Community Flood Mitigation Project
City of Annapolis
FY2022 · FMA · Awarded$245K
S. Southwood Stormwater Management
City of Annapolis
FY2022 · FMA · Awarded$291K
Eastport Flood Mitigation Design
City of Annapolis
FY2022 · FMA · Awarded$200K
Truxtun Cove Storm Drainage Improvements
City of Annapolis
FY2022 · BRIC · Awarded$73K
Hazard Mitigation Plan 2025 Update
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
FY2021 · BRIC · Awarded$240K
Shady Side Peninsula Climate Adaptation Study
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
| FY | Project | Recipient | Federal share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Other Non ConstructionLPDM · LPDM-PJ-03-MD-2024-005 | Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County | $338K | Obligated |
| 2024 | Infrastructure Protective Measures; Community Flood Mitigation ProjectLPDM · LPDM-PJ-03-MD-2024-003 | City of Annapolis | $1.38M | Obligated |
| 2023 | Infrastructure Protective Measures; Community Flood Mitigation ProjectLPDM · LPDM-PJ-03-MD-2023-002 | City of Annapolis | $3.46M | Obligated |
| 2022 | S. Southwood Stormwater ManagementFMA · EMP-2022-FM-010-0003 | City of Annapolis | $245K | Awarded |
| 2022 | Eastport Flood Mitigation DesignFMA · EMP-2022-FM-010-0004 | City of Annapolis | $291K | Awarded |
| 2022 | Truxtun Cove Storm Drainage ImprovementsFMA · EMP-2022-FM-010-0005 | City of Annapolis | $200K | Awarded |
| 2022 | Hazard Mitigation Plan 2025 UpdateBRIC · EMP-2022-BR-009-0012 | Anne Arundel County, Maryland | $73K | Awarded |
| 2021 | Shady Side Peninsula Climate Adaptation StudyBRIC · EMP-2021-BR-053-0011 | Anne Arundel County, Maryland | $240K | Awarded |
What the money paid for most often
- Generators ×5
- Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan ×4
- Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal ×3
- Engineering and feasibility studies ×3
Hazard mitigation plan
Anne Arundel County Hazard Mitigation Plan, 2025 Update
Adopted by Executive Order 68 and Resolution No. 22-25. FEMA requires an update every five years for the county to stay eligible for its mitigation grants.
- Adopted
- 2025
- FEMA approval runs to
- September 7, 2030
Our work in Anne Arundel County
Annapolis Maritime Resilience Initiative →
We served as project manager and engagement partner for Phase I with the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County and the City of Annapolis: 18 months of listening that surfaced 38 sites of concern.
Resilient & Ready →
The platform we built with the Resilience Authority through Council Fire Labs. It ranks resilience projects against the criteria that matter, matches them to funding and gives residents a public view of the portfolio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Neighboring counties
- Baltimore CityRelatively High risk · Inland Flooding$136.3Ma year
- Baltimore CountyRelatively Moderate risk · Inland Flooding$157.1Ma year
- Howard CountyRelatively Low risk · Inland Flooding$52Ma year
- Prince George's CountyRelatively Moderate risk · Inland Flooding$121.8Ma year
- Calvert CountyVery Low risk · Inland Flooding$16Ma year
- Queen Anne's CountyVery Low risk · Inland Flooding$12.7Ma year
About this data
Scores. FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025 release) ranks every U.S. county against all the others. A score is a percentile: a risk score of 82 means a higher value than 82% of counties. The risk index is the expected annual loss scaled up for higher social vulnerability and down for stronger community resilience. FEMA groups risk and loss into five ratings by natural breaks, and vulnerability and resilience into national fifths.
Expected annual loss is FEMA’s modeled average yearly loss from 18 natural hazards to buildings (at replacement value), crops and livestock, and people, whose expected deaths and injuries FEMA converts to dollars. It is an average, not a forecast: a low-risk county can still have a bad year.
Vulnerability and resilience. Social vulnerability comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Community Resilience Estimates. Community resilience is FEMA’s version of the University of South Carolina’s Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (2020), which counts past mitigation spending among its inputs. Vulnerability scores bottom out: 334 of the 3,144 counties scored, 8 of them in Maryland, share the lowest score, 10.6. Population is the 2020 Census count.
Grants are FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance awards in Maryland that are closed, approved, obligated or awarded: the projects in OpenFEMA’s older project file, which FEMA froze on August 31, 2026, plus the grants FEMA has managed in FEMA GO since fiscal 2020, from HMA Subapplications (both retrieved September 30, 2026). Projects FEMA now lists as withdrawn or denied are left out unless money was obligated to them. Amounts are the federal share obligated. Each grant counts toward the county it serves; 103 statewide grants ($24.1M) count toward none.
FEMA describes the index as one source for risk-reduction decisions, to weigh alongside benefit-cost analysis and local knowledge.
National Risk IndexRisk Index data (OpenFEMA)HMA Subapplications (OpenFEMA)Risk Index FAQ (FEMA, PDF)
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