Know Your Hazard

• Real Estate professionals are required to disclose if a building is in a SFHA at the time of a property sale.
• Lenders will notify borrowers if flood insurance is required as a condition of the mortgage loan (National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994). 
• You may contact SEMSWA’s Floodplain Program by using the Contact Us form. SEMSWA can provide all the floodplain information available for a property or area including FEMA maps, recent changes to FEMA maps, FHADs, unpublished floodplain map data, and other recent studies.​​

Check mapping sources directly:

The following resources are available to you. Some of them may require a high level of understanding of floodplain regulations and terminology or a familiarity with mapping systems. 

SEMSWA floodplain staff can assist you in understanding what the maps show. Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) show the boundaries of Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs) within a community. SFHAs are the high-risk flood zones. However, FIRMs do not show all the best available information. There is sometimes updated information for an area that is not shown on the FIRM but is available at SEMSWA. 

• MHFD Web Mapping – This website allows the user to type in a property address and find studies such as Flood Hazard Area Delineations in the area.
• FEMA Map Service Center – This website allows the user to type in a property address and find the effective FEMA FIRMs. These maps are used for official flood insurance determinations. Preliminary and pending map updates are also available through this website.