Part 3 of Floodplain Construction Regulations. To provide communities with the information they need to enact and enforce floodplain management ordinances or laws, FEMA conducts floodplain studies for communities throughout the United States and publishes the results in Flood Insurance Studies (FISs) and Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) (Figure 2-14). Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps […]
Part 5 of How Can A Flood Damage Your Home. Rates of Rise and Fall You may not have heard these terms before, but they describe important characteristics of flooding: how rapidly the elevation (and therefore the depth) of water increases and decreases during a flood. These rates are usually expressed in terms of feet […]
Part 4 of How Can A Flood Damage Your Home. You may have been told that your home is in “the 100-year” floodplain, or you may have heard that term used to describe a specific flood. You may also have heard similar terms used, such as “50-year flood” or “500-year flood.” These terms can be […]
Part 2 of How Can A Flood Damage Your Home. The depth and elevation of flooding are so closely related that, for the purposes of this discussion, they can be viewed as a single characteristic. Flood depth is the height of the floodwater above the surface of the ground or other feature at a specific […]
Part 1 of How Can A Flood Damage Your Home. To understand how flooding can damage your home, you need to know about six important flood characteristics: depth/elevation, flow velocity, frequency, rates of rise and fall, duration, and debris impact. Most of these characteristics apply to both riverine and coastal flooding, and they can vary […]