Last updated: · Scores from FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025)
Talbot County has about 600 miles of shoreline and the highest community resilience score FEMA gives any Maryland county. Its mitigation record stayed thin until Maryland's COVID-19 disaster declaration opened post-disaster money for any hazard: $2.8 million of the county's $3.0 million in FEMA mitigation grants came through it, most of it to raise 14 homes in Oxford.
What drives the risk
Inland flooding accounts for 25% of the county's $12.9 million in expected annual losses, hurricanes for 23% and heat waves for 12%, the third-largest heat share in Maryland. The county's 2022 plan raised extreme heat to high risk, and it counted about 29% of residents as 65 or older in 2020.
Flood risk concentrates on the water. Based on the 1% annual-chance flood zone, the 2022 plan names Oxford, St. Michaels, Tilghman Island and several smaller waterfront communities as high-risk. Oxford already runs tide gates at four locations to control tidal flooding.
Social vulnerability is relatively moderate at 46.9, but community resilience of 97.8 keeps the overall risk index at 42.4, very low.
Where the mitigation money has gone
OpenFEMA lists nine funded projects from fiscal 2002 to 2020, worth $3.0 million in federal share, and the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program supplied $2.9 million of it. Before 2020 the grants were small: two elevations in Oxford, a warning system and mitigation plans. Then FEMA approved $2.6 million under the COVID-19 declaration to elevate 14 Oxford homes, plus $189 thousand in advance assistance for St. Michaels. WBOC reported that it was the first time Oxford had applied for and received such a federal grant, with homeowners covering 10% of the cost.
Talbot holds 2% of Maryland's federal mitigation dollars against 1% of the state's expected losses.
The mitigation plan
The 2022 Talbot County Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience Plan was adopted by the county and the towns of Easton, Oxford, St. Michaels, Trappe and Queen Anne. FEMA approved it for August 1, 2022, through July 31, 2027, and lists an update in progress. The plan ranks coastal hazards, flooding, extreme heat and emerging infectious disease as high risk, and it counts 175 of the county's 597 shoreline miles as protected from erosion.
What we'd look at next
Talbot's plan expires in July 2027, and the pandemic-era money now raising Oxford's homes won't come around again. We would use the update to turn the Oxford elevations into a model for the other high-risk areas the plan names, with a list of willing owners in St. Michaels, on Tilghman Island and elsewhere ready for Flood Mitigation Assistance rounds. Heat, now ranked high in a county where nearly three in ten residents are 65 or older, deserves its own actions too.
Hazards ranked by expected annual loss
What FEMA expects each hazard to cost Talbot 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 $3.2M a year.
- Inland Flooding$3.2M25%
- Hurricane$3M23%
- Heat Wave$1.6M12%
- Drought$1.2M10%
- Coastal Flooding$1.1M8%
- Cold Wave$662K5%
- Tornado$541K4%
- Strong Wind$489K4%
Of the $12.9M total: buildings $7.9M, people $3.3M, agriculture $1.7M.
All 18 hazards FEMA scores
| Hazard | Expected annual loss | Loss rating | Risk rating | Events on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flooding | $3.17M | Very Low | Very Low | 22 |
| Hurricane | $2.95M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 40 |
| Heat Wave | $1.58M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 89 |
| Drought | $1.24M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 98 |
| Coastal Flooding | $1.08M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | — |
| Cold Wave | $662K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 15 |
| Tornado | $541K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 3 |
| Strong Wind | $489K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 169 |
| Earthquake | $405K | Relatively Low | Very Low | — |
| Lightning | $381K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | — |
| Wildfire | $182K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Winter Weather | $81K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Low | 141 |
| Ice Storm | $61K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 21 |
| Hail | $56K | Very Low | Very Low | 119 |
| Landslide | $75 | 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 Talbot 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
- 9
- Federal share
- $3M
- Fiscal years
- 2002–2020
By program
- HMGP · Hazard Mitigation Grant Program$2.9M · 6 projects
- PDM · Pre-Disaster Mitigation$69K · 2 projects
- BRIC · Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities$38K · 1 project
Most recent projects
FY2020 · HMGP · Approved$2.58M
Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal
Oxford
FY2020 · HMGP · Approved$189K
Advanced Assistance
St. Michaels
FY2019 · BRIC · Closed$38K
Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation Plan
Talbot County Emergency Services
FY2016 · HMGP · Closed$7K
Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan)
Talbot (County)
FY2015 · PDM · Closed$42K
Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan
Talbot County Department of Emergency Services
FY2009 · PDM · Closed$27K
Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan
Talbot County
FY2003 · HMGP · Closed$30K
Elevation of Private Structures - Riverine
Oxford
FY2002 · HMGP · Closed$19K
Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal
Oxford
| FY | Project | Recipient | Federal share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Elevation of Private Structures - CoastalHMGP · DR-4491-0023-R | Oxford | $2.58M | Approved |
| 2020 | Advanced AssistanceHMGP · DR-4491-0021-R | St. Michaels | $189K | Approved |
| 2019 | Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation PlanBRIC · PDMC-PL-03-MD-2019-002 | Talbot County Emergency Services | $38K | Closed |
| 2016 | Warning Systems (as a Component of a Planned, Adopted, and Exercised Risk Reduction Plan)HMGP · DR-4261-0011-F | Talbot (County) | $7K | Closed |
| 2015 | Local Multihazard Mitigation PlanPDM · PDMC-PL-03-MD-2015-003 | Talbot County Department of Emergency Services | $42K | Closed |
| 2009 | Local Multihazard Mitigation PlanPDM · PDMC-PL-03-MD-2009-005 | Talbot County | $27K | Closed |
| 2003 | Elevation of Private Structures - RiverineHMGP · DR-1492-0019-F | Oxford | $30K | Closed |
| 2002 | Elevation of Private Structures - CoastalHMGP · DR-1409-0006-R | Oxford | $19K | Closed |
What the money paid for most often
- Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan ×3
- Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal ×2
- Advanced Assistance ×1
- Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation Plan ×1
Hazard mitigation plan
2022 Talbot County Hazard Mitigation and Community Resilience Plan
Adopted by Talbot County and the towns of Easton, Oxford, St. Michaels, Trappe and Queen Anne in 2022. FEMA's approval runs through July 31, 2027, and FEMA lists an update in progress.
- Adopted
- September 2022
- FEMA approval runs to
- July 31, 2027
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)
Working on resilience in Talbot County?
Council Fire helps local governments and their partners turn risk data like this into plans and projects their communities support.