Frequently Asked Questions

Mitigation is an action to reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation can keep natural hazards, like flooding and hurricanes, from having catastrophic impacts.

An evaluation undertaken by experienced, professional engineers to determine the cause of flooding in a specific area and to propose solutions to minimize or correct the flooding issues.

While nothing can absolutely prevent flooding, the study will identify the cause of flooding in different areas in the defined study area and make recommendations for projects that will reduce the flood risk.

A watershed is a land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually to outflow points such as reservoirs, bays, and the ocean.

Flooding does not respect political boundaries. Therefore, flood impacts are better understood when looked at the watershed scale rather than at the property, neighborhood scale, or even municipal scale.

A floodplain is an area of land where water collects, pools and flows during the course of natural events. Some such areas are classified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA), also referred to as aa 100-year flood zone. While a floodplain is a natural feature, the SFHA is a regulatory area  where the National Flood Insurance Program's floodplain management regulations must be enforced and where the mandatory purchase of flood insurance applies for federally backed bank mortgages.

The NFIP is a Federal program created by Congress to mitigate future flood losses nationwide through community-enforced building and zoning regulations and to provide access to federally backed flood insurance protection for property owners. The NFIP is designed to provide an insurance alternative to disaster assistance to meet the escalating costs of repairing damage to buildings and their contents caused by floods. 

Participation in the NFIP is based on an agreement between local communities and the Federal Government that states that if a community will adopt and enforce a floodplain management regulation to reduce future flood risks to new construction in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs), the Federal Government will make flood insurance available within the community as a financial protection against flood losses. 

Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs, are used to determine the flood risk to your home or business. The low and moderate-risk zones are represented on the maps by the letter "X" or an "X" that is shaded. The inland high-risk zones will be labeled with designations such as "A", "AE", "AO" or "AH", and coastal high-risk zones that have additional risk from storm surge will be labeled "V" or "VE". 

Visit FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center webpage. Enter your address and you will be able to view the flood map panel for your location, revisions to the map, amendments to the flood map and any revalidation of maps.