County Hazards

States › Maryland › Howard County › ZIP 21043

ZIP code 21043, Howard County, Maryland

National Flood Insurance Program claims and payouts recorded for this ZIP code, with county context.

NCEI notes that Storm Data is compiled from a variety of sources including the National Weather Service, other federal, state and local agencies, the media and the public; that property and crop damage figures are estimates; and that some events are recorded by NWS forecast zone rather than by county. FEMA notes that NFIP claim records are redacted and aggregated to protect the privacy of policyholders. NFIP claims as of 8 Sep 2026.

OpenFEMA lists 224 NFIP claims for ZIP 21043 (Howard County, Maryland), with $15M paid on 173 claims since 1978.

That is 53.1% of the 422 claims recorded across Howard County. The average paid claim in the ZIP is $84K, higher than the county average of $55K and the Maryland average of $23K.

FEMA counts 39 repetitive-loss properties and 5 severe repetitive-loss properties in the ZIP (properties with two or more paid flood claims); their locations are not published.

At county level FEMA counts 816 residential flood policies in force, covering 0.8% of residential structures.

224NFIP claims since 1978
173paid claims
$15Mtotal paid
$84Kaverage paid claim

Compared with the county and state

MeasureZIP 21043HowardMarylandUS
Claims since 197822442225,3762,680,429
Share of claims paid77%68%59%78%
Average paid claim$84K$55K$23K$43K
Share of county claims53.1%100%——
Repetitive-loss properties39461,305—

Claims by year of loss

197820022026
NFIP claims in ZIP 21043 by year of loss, 1978 to 2026.
DecadeClaimsPaid
1970s11$35,796
1980s34$82,218
1990s2$0
2000s3$131,787
2010s166$14,310,565
2020s8$39,908
Year of lossClaimsPaid claimsAmount paidAverage paid
202611$3,586$3,586
202421$2,000$2,000
202310$0—
202232$23,884$11,942
202011$10,439$10,439
20189080$7,704,075$96,301
20165648$6,327,083$131,814
201510$0—
201411$1,939$1,939
201230$0—
2011146$277,467$46,245
201010$0—
200611$130,787$130,787
200321$1,000$1,000
199410$0—
199310$0—
198975$46,886$9,377
198473$14,368$4,789
198210$0—
19811915$20,965$1,398
1979107$35,542$5,077
197811$254$254

Claims are counted by year of loss as recorded in OpenFEMA's redacted NFIP claims file; amounts combine building, contents and increased-cost-of-compliance payments. ZIP codes in the file are the policyholder's reported ZIP.

County context: Howard County

Howard County has 856 weather events in the NCEI record since 1950 (21 in the last 12 months), 22 federal disaster declarations, and an overall National Risk Index rating of "Relatively Low". Flood-type events recorded in the county: 167; hurricane-strength tracks within 50 miles: 1.

Hail: 55 · Tornado: 20 · Flood: 167 · Wind: 382 · Winter: 113 — full county page.

Questions and answers

How many flood insurance claims have been filed in ZIP 21043?

224 claims since 1978 in the OpenFEMA NFIP claims file, 173 of them with a payment.

How much has the NFIP paid out in ZIP 21043?

$15M across 173 paid claims (building, contents and increased-cost-of-compliance payments combined), about $84K per paid claim.

Which year had the most flood claims in 21043?

2018, with 90 claims and $7.7M paid.

What county is ZIP 21043 in?

Most claims in this ZIP carry the county code for Howard County, Maryland; ZIP codes can cross county lines. The county page carries the storm record, declarations and risk index for the area.

Provenance

OpenFEMA NfipClaims v3 (as of 8 Sep 2026) and NfipMultipleLossProperties v1 (2 Aug 2026), aggregated by ZIP code and year of loss on this site; no property-level record is shown. County storm figures from NOAA NCEI through 30 Jun 2026. Built 1 Oct 2026. See the guide to redacted NFIP claims and the methodology.