FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Maryland · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Worcester County, MD
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 68
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Worcester County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 29% below the Maryland county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 32%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 32%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2,518
- 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 24047 · Worcester County 14 declarations · rank 2609/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 57%
- RANK-LOWER #2,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW 68
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -29%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Maryland state profile
Worcester County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Worcester County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Worcester · this county 14
Worcester · this county
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Worcester County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2609 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Worcester County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Worcester County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Worcester County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Worcester County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Worcester County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 2,518 claims and $19.5M 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 $7.7K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Maryland county averages 19.6 federal declaration records, while Worcester County has 14. The gap is 29% below that mean. Fewer entries indicate a quieter history of recorded federal actions, not immunity from a hazard and not a prediction about what happens next.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 68.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $25.5M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hurricane carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 4 years here, based on 70 historical events on record.
46 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Worcester 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
14 declarations (0.7x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
8 of 14 declarations are major disasters (57%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Worcester County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Worcester 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
57%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
68
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Worcester 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 826 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 2.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,196 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 33 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 17 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 6
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Flood 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Worcester County's federal record, 43% 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 - 8 57.1%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 6 42.9%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 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 |
| 4261 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2016-03-04 |
| 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 |
| 3251 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1492 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-19 |
| 1081 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-11 |
| 3100 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-16 |
| 524 | ICE CONDITIONS | DR | Snowstorm | 1977-01-26 |
| 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 Worcester 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
2,518
Total Paid
$19.5M
Avg Per Claim
$7.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 68.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$25.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Coastal Flooding Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado 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: Hurricane
Hurricane exposure in the model bundles the three ways a tropical system does harm, which arrive on different timescales and are insured differently: wind, storm surge on the coast, and rainfall flooding that can reach far inland well after landfall.
For Worcester County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Hurricane declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Worcester County's closest FEMA peer: Hertford County, NC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Worcester County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Worcester County: NRI composite 68.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Worcester County: 8 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Worcester County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
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 Worcester County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Worcester 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: 68.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Worcester County's NFIP claims file (2,518 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 Worcester County?
The most common disaster type in Worcester County is Hurricane, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (4), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Worcester County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Maryland average?
The typical Maryland county has 19.6 FEMA declaration records; Worcester County has 14, or 29% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Worcester County received?
Worcester County has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 57% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Worcester County filed?
Worcester County has 2,518 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $19.5M in payments, with an average of $7.7K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Worcester County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Worcester County was 2011, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Worcester County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Worcester County, Maryland has an overall risk score of 68.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Moderate, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $25.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Worcester County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Worcester County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Coastal Flooding (Relatively High) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 4 years, drawn from 70 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 Worcester County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Maryland profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events