Posts Tagged ‘flood maps’

Are You Trying To Find The Fema Flood Maps?

Fema offers flood maps on their website to help real estate owners determine if their property is in a flood zone. You can obtain the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) which represents the official depiction of flood hazards in a town or community.

The good news is looking at the Fema flood plain maps on their website is a free service if you are interested in viewing these maps online. I will warn you now that you better have a fast internet connection and a fast computer with a lot of memory. These Fema maps sure do take alot of memory away from your computer. I think I crashed mine several times, but finally got it to work. You can also create custom FIRMettes. A Firmette is a specific area of a map that you have an interest in. If you require hard copies, you can always use the paid service and order copies on the map from Fema. If you are interested in looking at some fema maps for your property, visit Femas website here: http://www.fema.gov/hazard/map/index.shtm. You can also call FEMA to discuss obtaining a map at 1-877-336-2627.

Who Typically Uses a Fema Flood Plain Map?

Fema maps are used by various people such as citizens, real estate brokers, insurance agents, community officials, banks and lending institutions, and more. A common use is to determine if a property and/or building is in a zone that will require flood insurance.

Some tips on how to read a FEMA Flood Map. Take note of these items when looking at your map:

• Flood Insurance Risk Zones
• Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA)
• Base Flood Elevation (BFE)
• 500 year Flood Areas

Many improvements have been made to the design of the FEMA Flood Maps. Fema has a database of knowledge that will teach you all about flood maps, how to use them, and more.