![]() That’s important because changes in land use alters the way water flows. A Department of Homeland Security report by the Auditor General found 58% of all of FEMA’s maps are outdate d. But the United States is huge and updating those maps doesn’t always happen on time. After all, they are the government and they are here to help! FEMA is required to update the flood maps every five years. As you can imagine, all this bureaucratic work takes lots of time. Once the map is issued, the public has 90 days to comment and appeal. Then FEMA may or may not meet with community officials to get their input. They are the work product created by studying an area’s history of flooding, looking at what flood mitigation features are in place, and then analyzing the risk and creating a map. These maps are the Flood Insurance Risk Maps (FIRM) that identify special hazard areas at high risk of flooding. How FEMA Flood Maps are Created FEMA’s Risk Mapping Assessment and Planning Program is the official process used to create FEMA flood maps. Private insurers were locked out, even though they increasingly had access to technology that allowed them to better calculate the risk of flooding more accurately than relying on maps. In practice, this Congressional action created a 50-year monopoly on the flood insurance market. The third task for creating maps was supposed to facilitate the other two tasks. The second task helped communities identify and reduce the risks of flood disasters and make those communities and their residents safer from floods. The first task resulted in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which started covering flood risks in 1973. The Federal Emergency Management Administration was charged with providing flood insurance, encouraging and supporting floodplain management, and developing maps of flood hazard zones. Many private insurers had abandoned the flood insurance market and people struggled to get coverage for their homes and businesses. Why FEMA Flood Maps Were Created In 1968, Congress passed the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968. Heck, I’ll even show you how to determine your flood zone. In this page, your trusty Flood Nerd will guide you through the complexities of FEMA flood maps, 100-year flood zones, and what to do if a new flood map affects your home. That’s why you need a Flood Nerd as your sherpa to guide you through the process and help you avoid common pitfalls like overpaying or underinsuring. ![]() With flood insurance, two houses side-by-side may pay different rates for the same coverage and insurance amounts. When it comes to homeowners insurance, the company just figures out what your house is worth and what it would cost to repair it, then they factor in the chances of a loss and those rates are pretty standard. Buying flood insurance is much different than buying homeowners insurance. That means taking on a second job, raiding the retirement account, or even forgoing retirement to earn enough money to repair flood damage. And if you don’t have flood insurance, a flood can ruin your finances now and in the future. But did you know that flooding is the number one natural disaster we face in the U.S.? All it takes is a few inches of water to cause catastrophic damage to your property. To get the expected flood height above ground, you would need to subtract your ground elevation from the base flood elevation.Hurricane! Tornado! Fire! Earthquake! So many terrible things can happen to your home. The Base Flood Elevations are denoted in the datum NAVD 88, which represents the number of feet above mean sea level in that datum. On a map, it may read: AE13, which means the structure is in the AE flood zone with a BFE of 13. While the flood zones identify the extent of flood risk, the Base Flood Elevation identifies the expect height that flood waters are expected to reach in a high risk area. These zones range from high- to moderate-risk areas: VE, AE, AO, A, and X. Within the floodplains shown on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for New York City, there are five zones. These maps identify areas that are at risk to flooding. Areas with a high flooding risk are identified as being in the 100-year floodplain, and areas with a moderate flooding risk are identified as the 500-year floodplain. It is important to understand how to interpret the flood maps to better understand your risk.
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