FEMA Records
20
Above median
Maryland · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Talbot County, MD
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 42
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Talbot County. Its 20 FEMA declarations are 2% above the Maryland county mean and exceed the count for 46% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 42%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 42%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 676
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records; an EM authorizes a narrower set of federal assistance than a DR.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 24041 · Talbot County 20 declarations · rank 1624/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-MID 65%
- RANK-LOWER #1,624
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +2%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Maryland state profile
Talbot County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Talbot County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Talbot · this county 20
Talbot · this county
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Talbot County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1624 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Talbot County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Talbot County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Talbot County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% of 3,266 counties
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-25
Talbot County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Talbot County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Drought carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). EAL and risk score use different inputs; they need not agree.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025 release) - Expected Annual Loss vs composite risk rating by hazard.
What does Talbot County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 676 claims and $14.2M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $21.0K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Talbot County's 20 federal records stand 2% above the Maryland county mean of 19.6. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 42.4/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 3.8 modeled event-days per year here, based on 98 historical events on record.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Talbot County, MD · PlainHazard-derived composite from federal records
This 0–100 index is an explicit PlainHazard composite from FEMA declaration history only on the county surface (this DB has no county-level NOAA damage row) . It is not FEMA's National Risk Index, not a forecast, and not a safety, insurance, or preparedness rating. Open the calculator · Methodology
FEMA Declarations (1953–present) Moderate
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
20 declarations (1.0x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
13 of 20 declarations are major disasters (65%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Talbot County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Talbot County
How to read this radar
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
Major Disaster share
65%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
42
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Talbot County?
FEMA's National Risk Index models a historical event count and an annualized frequency for each hazard type. Most hazards are expressed as modeled occurrences per year; FEMA expresses drought and heat-wave frequency as event-days per year. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 3.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 8 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 5.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 696 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 37 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 873 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 7.4 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 6.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 23 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.5 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 7
Snowstorm 6
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Flood 2
Winter Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Talbot County's federal record, 35% of its declarations. Atlantic tropical systems run on a defined season, 1 June to 30 November, with most activity concentrated between August and October; Pacific and territorial basins run on their own calendars. A single named storm routinely produces one declaration number covering a long corridor of counties at once, well inland as well as on the coast, which is why an affected county's count can jump by several in one year without several separate events having occurred.
One practical distinction matters when reading these records: a tropical declaration usually bundles wind, storm surge and inland rainfall flooding under a single incident, but the insurance behind them is split. Wind damage falls to property insurers, while flood and surge damage is covered only under a separate National Flood Insurance Program policy. That is why a county can show heavy declaration activity and a comparatively small NFIP claims record, or the reverse.
Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Major Disaster - 13 65.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 7 35.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3634 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4491 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3430 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4091 | HURRICANE SANDY | DR | Hurricane | 2012-11-20 |
| 3349 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-28 |
| 4034 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-16 |
| 3335 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-27 |
| 1910 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-05-06 |
| 1875 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-02-19 |
| 3251 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1492 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-19 |
| 3179 | SNOW | EM | Severe Storm | 2003-03-14 |
| 1324 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-04-10 |
| 1303 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-24 |
| 1081 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-11 |
| 1016 | SEVERE WINTER WEATHER AND ICE STORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-03-16 |
| 3100 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-16 |
| 524 | ICE CONDITIONS | DR | Snowstorm | 1977-01-26 |
| 489 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-10-04 |
| 341 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
Storm Events in Maryland
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Talbot County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,959 | 6 | 43 | $102.0M |
| Winter Weather | 1,341 | 4 | 26 | $95.0K |
| Flood | 1,089 | 1 | 0 | $1.4M |
| Flash Flood | 790 | 9 | 4 | $96.3M |
| Dense Fog | 513 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
676
Total Paid
$14.2M
Avg Per Claim
$21.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 42.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Hail Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Talbot County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Hurricane. That is not a contradiction, the two measure genuinely different things. Declarations record federal ACTION, which requires damage costly enough to exceed state and local capacity; the Risk Index models EXPECTED annual loss across all 18 hazards whether or not any declaration ever followed. A hazard can be the county's largest modeled exposure and never once have driven a declaration.
National Risk Index ratings are modeled estimates of expected annual loss, not predictions of what will happen in any given year.
Data-matched county comparisons
Talbot County's closest FEMA peer: Throckmorton County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Talbot County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Talbot County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Talbot County: 13 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Talbot County: NRI composite 42.4 (Very Low).
How these peers are chosen
Cohort: Published U.S. county equivalents outside the source state or territory. Each metric keeps six ETL candidates; three unique destinations are shown after de-duplicating across axes. Declaration-volume ranking combines count and Major-disaster share and prefers a different leading incident type; Major-share ranks the Major fraction adjusted for volume; NRI ranks the modeled composite score only.
Retained FEMA snapshot feed for Talbot County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Talbot County: nearest out-of-state National Risk Index composite and nearest FEMA declaration count (floor ≥5 records). Record similarity only, not a forecast of the next hazard.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 42.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Talbot County's NFIP claims file (676 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
More PlainHazard guides
- Most disaster-prone counties - U.S. counties ranked by FEMA declaration totals.
- Understanding disaster data - declarations vs storm events vs NRI scores.
- Preparing for natural disasters - household checklist (not county-specific advice).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Talbot County?
The most common disaster type in Talbot County is Hurricane, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (6), Biological (2), Severe Storm (2).
How does Talbot County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Maryland average?
FEMA lists 20 declaration records for Talbot County. That is 2% above the Maryland county mean of 19.6. Its count is also 3% below the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Talbot County received?
Talbot County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 65% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Talbot County filed?
Talbot County has 676 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $14.2M in payments, with an average of $21.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Talbot County?
No. In Talbot County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Talbot County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Talbot County was 2003, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Talbot County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Talbot County, Maryland has an overall risk score of 42.4 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Talbot County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Talbot County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hurricane (Relatively Moderate) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 3.8 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 98 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, exposed assets, and community vulnerability.
Data Sources & Methodology
Disaster declaration data comes from the FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 API, which includes all federally declared disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants.
Storm event data is sourced from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025), which tracks significant weather events including thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and winter storms.
Flood insurance data comes from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA claims dataset.
This data is provided for informational purposes only. FEMA disaster declarations represent federal response actions and may not capture all local emergencies or weather events.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Talbot County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Maryland profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events