By law, all homes in high-risk zones carrying a federally-backed mortgage must be covered by flood insurance. High-risk areas, referred to as Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) are shown on the map as zones labeled with the letters A or V. High-risk areas are defined as having a 1% chance of being flooded in any given year, which is also referred to as the 100-year flood or base flood.Each flood zone designation, represented by a letter or letters, tells homeowners what the risk is for flooding at their property over a period of years, regardless of the cause. Flood zones are areas mapped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for use in the National Flood Insurance Program.Flood hazard means base flood elevation, design flood elevation, flood hazard area or flood zone.Base flood elevation (BFE) means the elevation of a flood having a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year, which is commonly referred to as the “100-year flood” or the “one-percent-annual chance flood.”.Know your zone and follow evacuation orders. Evacuation zone maps are based on ground elevation and the area’s vulnerability to storm surge. These maps are used for hurricane preparedness and planning.Įvacuation may be necessary due to the risk of storm surge from tropical storms or hurricanes. Storm surge maps display where flooding will occur when an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm is pushed toward the shore by strong winds. NOTE: Federal requirements for flood insurance are only based on the FEMA FIRM, not the Pinellas County flood maps.įind out what the flood hazard and required development standards are BEFORE you develop your plans. As with the high-risk flood zones on FEMA FIRM maps, these floodplain areas are also considered high-risk areas and are subject to specific development regulations. The FIRM is used to determine building and flood insurance requirements.Ĭounty floodplain maps, developed from detailed watershed and coastal studies, also show areas that have a 1% or greater chance of flooding in any given year. High-risk areas have a 1% or greater chance of flooding in any given year. You should check them all to understand what your flood risk is.įEMA flood zone maps, known as Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), show areas of high and moderate to low flood risk. A home may be located in a non-evacuation zone, yet be located in a high-risk flood zone because of a nearby stream or pond. Flood zones can be low, moderate or high risk.įlood zones, evacuation zones and storm surge are different. They measure different conditions that may not occur at the same time, are determined by different methods and have different purposes. Everyone in Pinellas County is in a flood zone. Lenders do have the option to make the purchase of flood insurance a condition for their loans at any time, and some lenders may institute such requirements in advance of the maps becoming effective.Anywhere it rains, it can flood. If a property is mapped into a high-risk area (shown as a zone labeled with letters starting with “A” or “V”) and the owner has a mortgage through a federally regulated or insured lender, flood insurance will be required when the FIRM becomes effective. Property Owners Can Take Advantage of “Grandfathering” This release provides community officials, the public, and other stakeholders with their first view of the current flood hazards, which include changes that may have occurred in the flood risks throughout the community, or county, since the last flood hazard map was published. The release of preliminary flood hazard maps, or Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), is an important step in the mapping lifecycle for a community. This page is for homeowners who want to understand how their current effective Flood Map may change when the preliminary FEMA maps becomes effective. New and Preliminary Texas Flood Maps provide the public an early look at a home or community’s projected risk to flood hazards.
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