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Hazards in Howard County

Understanding Hazards in Howard County

Preparedness begins with understanding your local hazards. A hazard is any potential source of harm or difficulty and may be natural or manmade. High-risk hazards have a high likelihood of local occurrence and may result in serious consequences to life safety, property, critical infrastructure, the environment, and the economy.

Risk = Likelihood + Consequence

Hazard Resources

For detailed information on hazard risk in Howard County, the following resources provide detailed information on hazard risk in Howard County:

  • Community Hazard Handbook – An overview of local hazards and hazard risk designed for families and businesses in Howard County.

Hazards in Howard County

Howard County's risk assessment includes 26 distinct hazard types. Click on a hazard below to learn more.

  Natural Hazards
  Adversarial/Intentional Hazards   Technological/Accidental Hazards
 Animal/Plant Infestation
 		 Active Assailant
 		 Dam Failure
 Drought  Biological Attack
 		 Disease Epidemic/Unintentional Biological Hazard
 Earthquake  Chemical Attack
 		 Structure Fire
 Flood  Civil Unrest
 		 Transportation Hazard
 Hurricane/Tropical Storm
 Cyber/Communications Infrastructure Attack
 Unintentional Chemical Substance Release/Hazmat
 Lightning  Explosives  Unintentional Cyber/Communications Infrastructure Failure
 Severe Winter Weather
 		 Nuclear Blast
 		 Unintentional Radiological Substance Release
 Space Weather
 		 Radiological Attack
 		 Utility Disruption
 Tornado/Wind Storm
 Wildfire

HIRA Updates

The Office of Emergency Management conducted the research and created content for the HIRA in 2014 and 2015, as such it does not include references or data pertaining to incidents and events that have occurred since that time.  The office of Emergency Management has a planned update to this document that will take place on a regular basis and will include events that have taken place since the previous version was created.  These events include items such as:


  • The civil unrest in Baltimore
  • The snowstorm of 2016
  • The tornado of 2016
  • The flooding event in Ellicott City in 2016
  • The Howard County Government Website Hack
  • The flooding event in Ellicott City in 2018

Prepare Yourself

Understanding your hazard risk is only the first step toward building a resilient community. Learn more about how you can protect your home or business from the consequences of a disaster at the following locations:

ReadyHoCo - Howard County Government

Ready.gov – Dept. of Homeland Security

Emergency.cdc.gov – Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

https://www.weather.gov/safety/ – National Weather Service

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