Last updated: · Scores from FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025)
Garrett County has the smallest modeled hazard loss in Maryland, $5.8 million a year, and inland flooding accounts for 65% of it. The county's own record points elsewhere: its 2024 plan ranks flooding below severe winter and summer weather, and about half of its FEMA mitigation money has bought generators.
What drives the risk
This is Maryland's high country. The state's highest point sits on Backbone Mountain, and most communities see about 92 inches of snow a year, according to the county's 2024 plan. Winter weather has logged 553 events since 2005, more than in any other Maryland county, and Garrett is the only county where cold waves rank second in modeled loss. Even so, winter weather itself accounts for just $98 thousand a year.
Flooding carries the loss. The plan notes that Kitzmiller on the Potomac and Friendsville on the Youghiogheny have flooded in major events, and on May 13, 2025, the county ordered a mandatory evacuation along the Savage River Road corridor. The overall risk score of 16 rates Very Low and nearly matches the loss score of 16.4: with social vulnerability (48.4) and community resilience (57.1) both mid-range, FEMA's index adjusts the loss figure very little.
Where the mitigation money has gone
OpenFEMA's project records show $1.1 million in grants since fiscal 1996, and post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money supplied $1.0 million of it. Generators are the most common project and took about half the federal money. The largest single award, $309 thousand, bought county generators under the Hurricane Irene declaration in fiscal 2011, and another $153 thousand came through Maryland's COVID-19 declaration in fiscal 2020. FEMA's newer grant records show two more generator requests from fiscal 2020, for volunteer fire departments; neither was funded.
Flood projects are older and smaller. Four grants from fiscal 1996 through 1998 bought out flood-prone property in the county and in Oakland and paid for floodwall work in Friendsville. No buyout or flood-control project has been funded since.
The mitigation plan
The commissioners adopted the 2024 plan on October 7, 2024, and FEMA's approval runs from October 3, 2024, to October 2, 2029. The plan scores flooding as a Medium risk, behind cyber-threats and severe summer and winter weather, which it rates High. It counts 17 repetitive loss properties, 16 of them outside town limits, and 74 flood insurance policies in force countywide.
What we'd look at next
FEMA's loss model and the county's own ranking disagree about flooding, and the grant record has followed the ranking. Generators matter in a county this cold, but they do nothing for properties that flood again and again. We'd start with the 16 repetitive loss properties outside town limits, the thin flood insurance coverage, and the Savage River corridor, which flooded in May 2025 and drew no federal disaster declaration.
Hazards ranked by expected annual loss
What FEMA expects each hazard to cost Garrett 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 $3.8M a year.
- Inland Flooding$3.8M65%
- Cold Wave$386K7%
- Hurricane$292K5%
- Strong Wind$282K5%
- Tornado$246K4%
- Hail$228K4%
- Drought$212K4%
- Lightning$147K3%
Of the $5.8M total: buildings $4.6M, people $848K, agriculture $340K.
All 18 hazards FEMA scores
| Hazard | Expected annual loss | Loss rating | Risk rating | Events on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flooding | $3.79M | Very Low | Very Low | 55 |
| Cold Wave | $386K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 102 |
| Hurricane | $292K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 6 |
| Strong Wind | $282K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 88 |
| Tornado | $246K | Very Low | Very Low | 6 |
| Hail | $228K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 80 |
| Drought | $212K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 105 |
| Lightning | $147K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Winter Weather | $98K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 553 |
| Earthquake | $89K | Very Low | Very Low | — |
| Ice Storm | $15K | Very Low | Very Low | 24 |
| Wildfire | $15K | Very Low | Very Low | — |
| Landslide | $11K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Heat Wave | $4K | Very Low | Very Low | 1 |
| Avalanche | $919 | Very Low | Very Low | — |
| Coastal Flooding | — | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | — |
| Tsunami | — | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | — |
| Volcanic Activity | — | Not Applicable | Not Applicable | — |
FEMA hazard mitigation grants
Projects FEMA has funded in Garrett 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
- 19
- Federal share
- $1.1M
- Fiscal years
- 1996–2020
By program
- HMGP · Hazard Mitigation Grant Program$1M · 15 projects
- FMA · Flood Mitigation Assistance$53K · 1 project
- PDM · Pre-Disaster Mitigation$40K · 2 projects
- BRIC · Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities$17K · 1 project
Most recent projects
FY2020 · HMGP · Approved$153K
Generators
Garrett (County)
FY2020 · BRIC · Awarded$17K
Garrett County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update- BRIC FY2021
Garrett County Board of Commissioners
FY2016 · HMGP · Closed$42K
Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan)
Garrett (County)
FY2016 · PDM · Closed$21K
Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation Plan
Garrett County Government
FY2013 · HMGP · Closed$12K
Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan)
Garrett (County)
FY2013 · HMGP · Closed$28K
Generators
Grantsville
FY2012 · HMGP · Closed$6K
Generators
Loch Lynn Heights
FY2012 · HMGP · Closed$62K
Generators
Oakland
| FY | Project | Recipient | Federal share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4491-0013-R | Garrett (County) | $153K | Approved |
| 2020 | Garrett County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update- BRIC FY2021BRIC · EMP-2020-BR-005-0010 | Garrett County Board of Commissioners | $17K | Awarded |
| 2016 | Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan)HMGP · DR-4261-0005-F | Garrett (County) | $42K | Closed |
| 2016 | Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation PlanPDM · PDMC-PL-03-MD-2016-004 | Garrett County Government | $21K | Closed |
| 2013 | Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan)HMGP · DR-4091-0006-F | Garrett (County) | $12K | Closed |
| 2013 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4091-0008-R | Grantsville | $28K | Closed |
| 2012 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4075-0014-R | Loch Lynn Heights | $6K | Closed |
| 2012 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4075-0010-R | Oakland | $62K | Closed |
What the money paid for most often
- Generators ×6
- Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan ×2
- Acquisition of Private Real Property (Structures and Land) - Riverine ×2
- Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan) ×2
Hazard mitigation plan
Garrett County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (2024 Update)
Covers the county and its eight towns. The Board of County Commissioners adopted it on October 7, 2024, by Resolution 2024-13, and FEMA approved it for October 3, 2024, through October 2, 2029.
- Adopted
- October 2024
- FEMA approval runs to
- October 2, 2029
Frequently Asked Questions
Neighboring counties
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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