Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Howard, MD

Maryland · pop. 332,270 · FIPS 24027

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Winter Weather
dominant hazard
$52M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

Expected annual loss · all 3,232 U.S. counties

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Howard $52M

A real dollar distribution: most counties sit far below a handful of high-exposure ones. A FEMA model of annual loss, not a record of disasters.

FEMA national percentile scores

FEMA/CDC score each county 0–100 against all others — the score is the national rank (RATING). Higher risk and vulnerability are worse; higher resilience is better.

FEMA risk indexRelatively Low 72.42/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (72nd percentile)
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 10.62/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 92.88/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Howard

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 421 flood-insurance claims totaling $15.8M in Howard since 1978. The costliest year was 2018 ($8.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $254 paid 1979: $110,921 paid 1980: $1,656 paid 1981: $42,436 paid 1982: $846 paid 1983: $2,574 paid 1984: $17,307 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $50,782 paid 1990: $0 paid 1991: $0 paid 1993: $0 paid 1994: $0 paid 1996: $19,328 paid 1997: $0 paid 1999: $73,129 paid 2000: $0 paid 2001: $2,184 paid 2003: $16,476 paid 2005: $35,751 paid 2006: $217,884 paid 2007: $711 paid 2008: $1,790 paid 2009: $0 paid 2010: $0 paid 2011: $482,141 paid 2012: $8,565 paid 2013: $9,708 paid 2014: $63,099 paid 2015: $8,161 paid 2016: $6,568,787 paid 2017: $9,321 paid 2018: $7,972,461 paid 2019: $0 paid 2020: $12,560 paid 2021: $5,318 paid 2022: $24,403 paid 2023: $2,571 paid 2024: $12,256 paid 2025: $6,268 paid 2018 · $8.0M 1978 2025
$15.8M
total paid
$37,481
average claim
$500K
largest single claim
44%
in high-risk flood zones (A/V)

RECORDED — these are actual paid NFIP claims (a redacted census from OpenFEMA), not a model. They are the realized counterpart to the FEMA risk score above: one is what happened and got paid, the other is what a model predicts.

Scope: these are flood-insurance claims, so they undercount flooding where owners were uninsured — read this as "what NFIP paid here," not "every flood." County-level totals, not a per-property or per-address verdict. Verify a specific address and buy coverage at FloodSmart.gov; the underlying data is OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

What these figures mean

  • RATING — the FEMA risk score, expected loss, social vulnerability, and resilience are FEMA/CDC models, not records of disasters that happened. The 0–100 scores are already national percentiles.
  • MEASURED — population is a recorded census figure.
  • COMPUTED — the county's rank within the dollar-loss distribution is our placement over the 3,232 counties.
  • CONTEXT — the note below is framing, not a measurement.

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What this is — and is not

This is FEMA/CDC modeled hazard exposure for Howard, MD and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Howard is a good or bad place to live — hazard exposure is not place quality, and a county can't opt out of its geography. It is not a per-property or per-address risk assessment, not a prediction of any specific disaster, and not insurance advice. For site-specific risk use a per-property assessment; for the underlying model see FEMA National Risk Index.