Last updated: · Scores from FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025)
Hurricanes account for 47% of Wicomico County's $24.1 million in expected annual losses, the largest hurricane share of any Maryland county. Only Baltimore and Montgomery counties, with building stock worth roughly nine to ten times Wicomico's, carry larger modeled hurricane losses. The grant record is small by comparison: 13 funded projects worth $896 thousand since fiscal 2003.
What drives the risk
Hurricanes and inland flooding (26%) together carry nearly three-quarters of expected losses. Coastal flooding, where FEMA's model counts storm surge, is only 2%, though surge has done real damage here: the county's plan says Hurricane Isabel in 2003 pushed 4- to 5-foot surges up the Wicomico and Nanticoke rivers and caused the worst recorded flooding in county history. The plan uses a stronger, closer version of Isabel as its hurricane wind scenario and finds that homes would bear 98% of the losses.
Unlike Somerset and Dorchester, Wicomico rates relatively low for social vulnerability, at 26.9, and relatively high for community resilience, at 76.9, so the overall risk rating is relatively low.
Where the mitigation money has gone
The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program supplied 9 of the 13 projects and $739 thousand, mostly for elevating flood-prone homes, generators and plans. The largest award, $163 thousand under Maryland's COVID-19 declaration, went to TidalHealth Peninsula Regional, the hospital in Salisbury, as advance assistance, the money FEMA provides to scope projects and build complete applications. The county plan lists a levee, backflow valves and stormwater pumps for the hospital, plus impact glass, hurricane shutters and roof retrofits. FEMA's model does not count impacts to hospitals and other critical facilities, so this is risk the headline numbers miss.
The mitigation plan
The 2022 Wicomico County Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Plan covers the county and its eight municipalities, including Salisbury. The County Council adopted it on April 19, 2022, the day FEMA approved it, and approval runs through April 18, 2027. The county's plan website describes the update now under way as the 2027 plan, and the county and Salisbury also keep separate nuisance flood plans for tidal flooding.
What we'd look at next
Approval runs out on April 18, 2027, and neighboring Worcester County shows the cost of a lapse: no FEMA mitigation project grants until a new plan is approved. We'd use the update to line up projects for the two problems the county's own analysis flags: wind damage to homes, and repeat flooding at the 22 repetitive-loss properties the plan counted in 2021, clustered in Salisbury and southwest communities such as Nanticoke and Bivalve. The hospital projects already in the plan are a sensible first application.
Hazards ranked by expected annual loss
What FEMA expects each hazard to cost Wicomico County in an average year, in damage to buildings and crops and in the dollar value it puts on deaths and injuries. Hurricane leads at $11.3M a year.
- Hurricane$11.3M47%
- Inland Flooding$6.2M26%
- Cold Wave$1.5M6%
- Drought$793K3%
- Heat Wave$747K3%
- Tornado$701K3%
- Lightning$556K2%
- Earthquake$510K2%
Of the $24.1M total: buildings $15.6M, people $4.2M, agriculture $4.3M.
All 18 hazards FEMA scores
| Hazard | Expected annual loss | Loss rating | Risk rating | Events on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | $11.31M | Relatively High | Relatively Moderate | 70 |
| Inland Flooding | $6.16M | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 20 |
| Cold Wave | $1.53M | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Low | 20 |
| Drought | $793K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 119 |
| Heat Wave | $747K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 64 |
| Tornado | $701K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 9 |
| Lightning | $556K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | — |
| Earthquake | $510K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Wildfire | $482K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Coastal Flooding | $432K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | — |
| Strong Wind | $398K | Relatively Low | Relatively Low | 63 |
| Winter Weather | $217K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 113 |
| Ice Storm | $154K | Relatively Moderate | Relatively Moderate | 24 |
| Hail | $96K | Very Low | Very Low | 33 |
| Landslide | $194 | 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 Wicomico 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
- 13
- Federal share
- $896K
- Fiscal years
- 2003–2020
By program
- HMGP · Hazard Mitigation Grant Program$739K · 9 projects
- PDM · Pre-Disaster Mitigation$101K · 2 projects
- BRIC · Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities$38K · 1 project
- FMA · Flood Mitigation Assistance$19K · 1 project
Most recent projects
FY2020 · HMGP · Approved$88K
Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal
Salisbury
FY2020 · HMGP · Approved$158K
Elevation of Private Structures - Riverine
Wicomico (County)
FY2020 · HMGP · Approved$163K
Advanced Assistance
TidalHealth Peninsula Regional
FY2019 · BRIC · Closed$38K
Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation Plan
Wicomico County Department of Emergency Services
FY2018 · PDM · Obligated$78K
Generators
Town of Hebron
FY2016 · HMGP · Closed$36K
Generators
Sharptown
FY2013 · HMGP · Closed$26K
Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan; State Multihazard Mitigation Plan
Salisbury
FY2012 · HMGP · Closed$32K
Generators
Wicomico (County)
| FY | Project | Recipient | Federal share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Elevation of Private Structures - CoastalHMGP · DR-4491-0024-R | Salisbury | $88K | Approved |
| 2020 | Elevation of Private Structures - RiverineHMGP · DR-4491-0022-R | Wicomico (County) | $158K | Approved |
| 2020 | Advanced AssistanceHMGP · DR-4491-0025-R | TidalHealth Peninsula Regional | $163K | Approved |
| 2019 | Local Multijurisdictional Multihazard Mitigation PlanBRIC · PDMC-PL-03-MD-2019-004 | Wicomico County Department of Emergency Services | $38K | Closed |
| 2018 | GeneratorsPDM · PDMC-PJ-03-MD-2018-010 | Town of Hebron | $78K | Obligated |
| 2016 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4261-0025-R | Sharptown | $36K | Closed |
| 2013 | Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan; State Multihazard Mitigation PlanHMGP · DR-4091-0004-P | Salisbury | $26K | Closed |
| 2012 | GeneratorsHMGP · DR-4075-0011-R | Wicomico (County) | $32K | Closed |
What the money paid for most often
- Elevation of Private Structures - Coastal ×3
- Generators ×3
- Local Multihazard Mitigation Plan; State Multihazard Mitigation Plan ×1
- Infrastructure Protective Measures (Roads and Bridges) ×1
Hazard mitigation plan
2022 Wicomico County Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Plan
A multi-jurisdictional plan covering the county and its eight municipalities, adopted by the County Council on April 19, 2022, the day FEMA approved it. An update, which the county calls the 2027 plan, is under way; FEMA requires an update every five years for the county to stay eligible for its mitigation grants.
- Adopted
- April 2022
- FEMA approval runs to
- April 18, 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)
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