Worcester County, Maryland: hazard history

FEMA declared 14 disasters that named Worcester County between 1972 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3634 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3430 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4491 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• DR-4261 2016 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• EM-3349 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4091 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• EM-3335 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• DR-4034 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• EM-3251 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1492 2003 · Hurricane · Hurricane Isabel

Not counted above: 1 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Maryland. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.

Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.

NOAA storm event records in Worcester County each year. The busiest year was 2016, with 31 records.

Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.

Costliest records

1. Coastal Flood · Oct 28, 2012$2.5M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 418292
2. Coastal Flood · Oct 28, 2012$2.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 418291
3. Coastal Flood · Jan 27, 1998$1.5M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5629813
4. Coastal Flood · Feb 4, 1998$1.5M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5639802
5. Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 6, 1996$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5583697

Deadliest records

1. Rip Current · Jul 3, 20061 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 injury · NOAA record 5522781
2. Rip Current · Jun 2, 20141 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 531457
3. Rip Current · Jun 13, 20141 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 531458
4. Rip Current · Aug 26, 20141 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 541109
5. Rip Current · Sep 17, 20141 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 543319

Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $19.2M on 2,505 claims in Worcester County from 1978 to 2024.

A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 1996 to 2026 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.

A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Worcester County — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.

• Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
• NOAA files some events against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Worcester County by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 470 records, 242 were filed against this county and 228 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 6% of Maryland's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.