Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Montgomery, MD

Maryland · pop. 1,061,279 · FIPS 24031

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Winter Weather
dominant hazard
$126M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

lower than most counties (39th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Montgomery $126M

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 Moderate 91.67/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 19.88/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceRelatively High 63.55/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (64th percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Montgomery

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 775 flood-insurance claims totaling $4.8M in Montgomery since 1978. The costliest year was 2021 ($714K paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $68,142 paid 1979: $364,599 paid 1980: $18,622 paid 1981: $0 paid 1982: $879 paid 1983: $1,627 paid 1984: $16,894 paid 1985: $109,131 paid 1986: $0 paid 1987: $1,362 paid 1988: $21,925 paid 1989: $2,710 paid 1990: $4,000 paid 1991: $1,478 paid 1992: $14,591 paid 1993: $0 paid 1994: $21,983 paid 1996: $694,019 paid 1997: $0 paid 1998: $0 paid 1999: $0 paid 2000: $0 paid 2001: $0 paid 2002: $0 paid 2003: $17,943 paid 2004: $10,212 paid 2005: $3,471 paid 2006: $534,880 paid 2007: $16,039 paid 2008: $12,950 paid 2009: $21,426 paid 2010: $254,303 paid 2011: $257,649 paid 2012: $47,344 paid 2013: $49,047 paid 2014: $250,949 paid 2015: $14,662 paid 2016: $147,707 paid 2017: $15,652 paid 2018: $110,650 paid 2019: $299,381 paid 2020: $175,518 paid 2021: $714,259 paid 2022: $48,153 paid 2023: $74,391 paid 2024: $21,173 paid 2025: $326,084 paid 2021 · $714K 1978 2025
$4.8M
total paid
$6,149
average claim
$360K
largest single claim
25%
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 Montgomery, MD and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Montgomery 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.