With 100 year weather events happening every five or ten years, flooding in this country has become what seems like a regular occurrence. If you live in a coastal community, the threat from big hurricanes and tropical storms like Katrina, Isabel or Sandy is ever present.
The other major culprit of catastrophic flooding comes in the form of record rain falls, dumping large volumes of water in short periods of time. These heavy rains overwhelm drainages, cause flash flooding and rivers and creeks to swell to unprecedented levels.
There is only one guaranteed method to protect your home from flooding. Elevation. Lifting your home out of harm’s way gives you protection from property loss, savings on flood insurance and peace of mind.
You have two options when it comes to mitigating the risk of flood damage to your home. Be Proactive or Reactive. Simply put, elevate your home before a flood comes, or elevate your home after the flood, incurring the financial and emotional loss coupled with being displaced. Take a look at the resources on this page to learn more about the benefits of lifting a house in a flood zone, potential grants available and the steps involved in getting the ball rolling.
How do I know if I am in a Flood Zone?
It is as simple as entering your address to access all the FEMA Flood Zone maps here at the FEMA website below.
https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search?AddressQuery=515%20water%20st%20sharptown%2C%20md
How does Flood Insurance work?
The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is outlined here on the FEMA website that has the all the answers there is related to flood insurance, who can get it, what it covers, etc.
My house was flooded, is there any Grants Available to help me with the cost of elevating my home?
All Hazard Mitigation Grants are handled through the Emergency Management Department of the County where your home is located and they are your best resource to find out if there is any grant money available for flood mitigation (home elevation). You can also refer to this Hazard Mitigation Assistance Guide found on FEMA’s website.
What are the benefits to elevating your home to be FEMA compliant?
- Significantly reduces the risk of flooding.
- Significantly reduces flood insurance policy rates.
- Reduced expenditures on recovery – Every dollar invested in elevation saves $4 dollars of recovery expenditures.
- Reverses the cycle of flooding.
- Makes your home that much more marketable if you decide to sell it. Most mortgage companies will not finance a non-compliant house in a flood zone. If it is difficult for buyers to get financing, your sales price will suffer.
- Engages multiple construction trades and labor.
- Stabilizes the real estate market and values of the property in a community.
- Preserves property tax revenues which support schools and government operations, infrastructure and public safety as well as bonding for public projects.
- Increases community resiliency.
- Preserves the historic buildings which provide the sense of place of a community.
- Environmentally responsible. The recycling and re-use of existing buildings results in a reduction of tons of solid waste to the landfill.
- Natural resource savings. Every 1,000 sq ft of wood frame building uses ~ 250 trees.
Which flood zone you are in will determine what your new FEMA compliant foundation will look like. Take a look at the two different examples below depicting compliant foundations in the A Zone and V Zone.
