New maps (preliminary or effective) show my home now to be located in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA); how does this affect my property and me?
When FEMA releases a preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and Flood Insurance Study (FIS) report for a community, caution must be exercised in using this data. For insurance purposes, preliminary FIRMs and FIS reports cannot be used to make official flood determinations. The currently effective FIRM is the only official document for this purpose. However, for regulatory purposes, preliminary FIRMs and FIS reports may be used by the community. Local regulations usually allow for the use of the best available data, and in most instances, the data provided on the preliminary FIRMs is much better than the older data on the currently effective FIRMs. The use of preliminary maps as “best available data” is only allowable when the preliminary data are more conservative than the effective data; i.e. the elevations of the base (1-percent-annual-chance) flood are higher or the SFHA is more extensive. Please contact your community’s floodplain administrator to determine whether preliminary
Related Questions
- New maps (preliminary or effective) show my home now to be located in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA); how does this affect my property and me?
- What is a Special Flood Hazard Area, aND HOW DO I DETERMINE IF MY PROPERTY IS LOCATED IN THIS AREA ON THE FLOOD INSURANCE RATE MAPS?
- What is a Special Flood Hazard Area, aND HOW DO I DETERMINE IF MY PROPERTY WILL BE LOCATED IN THIS AREA ON THE NEW MAPS?
