The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been working with county and municipal governments over the last several years to incorporate the best available data into new flood maps.
Many property owners will be delighted: About 60 percent of the parcels in a flood zone — about 266,000 — were moved from a FEMA high-risk flood zone to a moderate or low-risk flood zone.
However, about 31,000 Broward properties were found to be more vulnerable to flooding than previously thought, meaning they’ll need flood insurance if they have federally regulated or insured mortgages.
“In almost a decade of FEMA Flood Map research, I have never seen changes this drastic,” says Chad Worms, Senior Mapping Analyst at Second Look Flood. Everyone needs to reevaluate their situation, gather information, and contact their lender and insurance company. A lot of people will save a lot of money,” Chad added.
Second Look Flood, an experienced Flood Determination Company, offers the newest FEMA maps and tools to help homebuyers and homeowners more accurately determine their flood risk. They offer flood zone determinations and reports (showing the flood zone) to the general public.
“FEMA is in the process of updating Flood Maps in every state,” says Bryan Baumann, Certified Floodplain Manager at Second Look Flood. “Each year, thousands of homeowners that are wrongly placed in the high-risk flood zone by their lender. It’s really up to the homeowner to do their own research.”
At Second Look Flood, well-trained mapping analysts manually research each property using multiple resources. An aerial overlay is constructed showing the property on the newest FEMA flood plain map.
“Every homebuyer and homeowner deserves the peace of mind of a well-trained mapping professional working on their behalf,” Baumann adds.
Once a homeowner finds their home on the new FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), and discovers the new flood zone. They should contact their lender to update the flood zone determination on file and contact their insurance agent for updated flood insurance pricing.
Source: WebWire
