2020-07-04 FEMA Flood Risk

status: DRAFT author: ge todays_date: 2020-07-04 title: FEMA Flood Risk file_name: 2020-07-04-fema-flood-risk.md —

An organization called the First Street Foundation has produced a national flood risk map that is different from FEMA’s assessment.

At the national level, the First Street Foundation Flood Model identifies around 1.7 times the number of properties as having substantial risk compared to the FEMA 1-in-100 SFHA designation.

I haven’t bothered digging into their methodology, but since it includes more houses, it better matches my own anxieties about flooding. We have had flood insurance since moving in in 1980.

Here is the Foundation’s flood factor for our house.

I think that the important thing to look at is the Summary at the top of the page:

This property has minimal flood risk.

This property has a Minimal Flood Factor™

Although flood risks across the country are changing because of the environment, this property is unlikely to flood over the next 30 years.

You will notice for our house, even with minimal risk of flooding, they recommend that we get flood insurance. (We have.)

Their Flood Risk Explorer is a bit confusing.

I can’t tell if the risk percentages are annual or cumulative. I think they are annual, but I’m not sure.