Last updated: · Scores from FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025)
St. Mary's County is a peninsula with 535 miles of shoreline, and FEMA's model splits most of its expected losses between inland flooding and hurricanes. Hurricane Isabel alone caused $86.2 million in property damage here in 2003, according to storm records in the county's plan. FEMA's mitigation grants to the county since fiscal 2000 total $2.0 million.
What drives the risk
Inland flooding accounts for $7.2 million of the county's $22.5 million in expected annual losses, 32%, and hurricanes for $6.4 million, 29%. The county is bordered by the Potomac, the Chesapeake Bay, the Patuxent and the Wicomico, and its 2023 hazard plan says about 44% of that shoreline is eroding to some degree. The plan names Point Lookout, the Piney Point and St. George Island area, and Colton's Point as most exposed to storm surge.
The county's own risk assessment rates coastal hazards high and flooding medium-high. The plan counted 60 repetitive loss properties in March 2022, up from 58 in 2017, and seven severe repetitive loss properties where the 2017 plan found none.
The social vulnerability score of 10.6 is the lowest FEMA gives, and community resilience rates very high at 93.1. Together they hold the overall risk index to 42.6, very low.
Where the mitigation money has gone
FEMA lists 11 funded projects from fiscal 2000 to 2023, worth $2.0 million in federal share, and the post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program supplied $1.25 million of it. The largest, $459 thousand in fiscal 2000, bought one flood-prone property in Leonardtown, and $375 thousand retrofitted a public building against wind. The rest paid for a few elevations and buyouts, generators and planning. Three applications were denied, including a 2015 request for shoreline stabilization. Since fiscal 2020, Flood Mitigation Assistance has put $593 thousand into elevating a flood-prone home, and the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program $130 thousand into a living shoreline and wetland restoration on St. George Island.
St. Mary's holds 1% of Maryland's federal mitigation dollars against 2% of the state's expected losses.
The mitigation plan
The St. Mary's County 2023 Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan covers the county and Leonardtown, its only incorporated town. FEMA approved it for March 13, 2023, through March 12, 2028, so an update is due by March 2028. Its actions include joining FEMA's Community Rating System, which discounts flood insurance premiums, and a watershed study with Charles County and Leonardtown using updated rainfall data. The plan also draws on the county's 2020 nuisance flood plan, which inventories low-lying roads that flood.
What we'd look at next
The 2028 update is the county's chance to turn its high coastal-risk rating into fundable projects. Eight of its 11 FEMA projects came through the post-disaster program, so mitigation here has moved mostly after storms. We would start with two items the plan's 2022 status report listed as unfinished, mitigating repetitive loss properties in Piney Point and Tall Timbers and building living shorelines on Ellis Road and at Sandgate, and get them scoped and priced before the next grant round.
Hazards ranked by expected annual loss
What FEMA expects each hazard to cost St. Mary's 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 $7.2M a year.
- Inland Flooding$7.2M32%
- Hurricane$6.4M29%
- Strong Wind$1.4M6%
- Tornado$1.4M6%
- Heat Wave$1.4M6%
- Coastal Flooding$1.1M5%
- Drought$1M4%
- Earthquake$670K3%
Of the $22.5M total: buildings $16.8M, people $4.5M, agriculture $1.2M.
All 18 hazards FEMA scores
| Hazard | Expected annual loss | Loss rating | Risk rating | Events on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flooding | $7.24M | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 72 |
| Hurricane | $6.41M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 56 |
| Strong Wind | $1.41M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 101 |
| Tornado | $1.4M | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 34 |
| Heat Wave | $1.35M | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 105 |
| Coastal Flooding | $1.15M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | — |
| Drought | $1M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 105 |
| Earthquake | $670K | Relatively Low | Very Low | — |
| Cold Wave | $654K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 20 |
| Lightning | $490K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Low | — |
| Hail | $237K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 119 |
| Ice Storm | $167K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Low | 20 |
| Winter Weather | $143K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Low | 124 |
| Wildfire | $132K | Relatively Low | Very Low | — |
| Landslide | $2K | Very Low | Very 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 St. Mary's 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
- 11
- Federal share
- $2M
- Fiscal years
- 2000–2023
By program
- HMGP · Hazard Mitigation Grant Program$1.3M · 8 projects
- FMA · Flood Mitigation Assistance$593K · 1 project
- BRIC · Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities$130K · 1 project
- PDM · Pre-Disaster Mitigation$23K · 1 project
Most recent projects
FY2023 · FMA · Awarded$593K
Home Elevation
St Marys County Emergency Service
FY2020 · BRIC · Awarded$130K
St. George Island Living Shoreline and Wetland Restoration Project along MD 249
Transportation Dept
FY2016 · HMGP · Closed$140K
Acquisition of Private Real Property (Structures and Land) - Riverine
St. Mary's (County)
FY2015 · PDM · Closed$23K
Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan
St. Mary's County
FY2012 · HMGP · Closed$69K
Generators
St. Mary's (County)
FY2010 · HMGP · Closed$96K
Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal
St. Mary's (County)
FY2010 · HMGP · Closed$375K
Retrofitting Public Structures - Wind
St. Mary's (County)
FY2003 · HMGP · Closed$80K
Elevation of Private Structures - Riverine
St. Mary's (County)
| FY | Project | Recipient | Federal share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Home ElevationFMA · EMP-2023-FM-001-0001 | St Marys County Emergency Service | $593K | Awarded |
| 2020 | St. George Island Living Shoreline and Wetland Restoration Project along MD 249BRIC · EMP-2020-BR-005-0019 | Transportation Dept | $130K | Awarded |
| 2016 | Acquisition of Private Real Property (Structures and Land) - RiverineHMGP · DR-4261-0022-R | St. Mary's (County) | $140K | Closed |
| 2015 | Local Multihazard Mitigation PlanPDM · PDMC-PL-03-MD-2015-005 | St. Mary's County | $23K | Closed |
| 2012 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4075-0004-R | St. Mary's (County) | $69K | Closed |
| 2010 | Elevation of Private Structures - CoastalHMGP · DR-1910-0016-R | St. Mary's (County) | $96K | Closed |
| 2010 | Retrofitting Public Structures - WindHMGP · DR-1910-0009-R | St. Mary's (County) | $375K | Closed |
| 2003 | Elevation of Private Structures - RiverineHMGP · DR-1492-0009-F | St. Mary's (County) | $80K | Closed |
What the money paid for most often
- Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan ×2
- Acquisition of Private Real Property (Structures and Land) - Riverine ×2
- Elevation of Private Structures - Riverine ×2
- Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal ×1
Hazard mitigation plan
St. Mary's County 2023 Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan
Covers the county and Leonardtown, its only incorporated town. FEMA approved it on March 13, 2023, the day Leonardtown adopted it, and the county commissioners adopted it on March 21, 2023.
- Adopted
- March 2023
- FEMA approval runs to
- March 12, 2028
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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