I noticed that the Flood Depth Explained and Personal Solutions sections were generalized because they provided the same information for each address I looked up. Entering a state name results in no action-the program simply doesn’t respond, which is understandable since most people want more detailed information that can’t be found at the state level. You have to start over by entering an exact address. Once you have entered a city/state, you can zoom in, but the tool does not allow you to select a specific property. There are different colored dots that show properties’ Flood Factors as determined by the Flood Factor tool. City boundaries are not included on the map, and no customization is available. When addresses are entered, the FEMA flood zone layer is visible however, when City, State is entered, the FEMA flood zone layer is not visible. I also entered City, State information to see what came up. However, the aerial photography was over seven years old, noted because a shop building constructed in 2013 was non-existent in the aerial photography. It was pretty accurate, because the pin was across the street from the actual location of the business. I entered one business address, which turned up the statement “unable to find, showing the nearest location”. Having lived in Alaska for six years, I found this very frustrating. If you live in Hawaii or Alaska, don’t even try to enter your address-only the contiguous 48 states are searchable in this tool. One property that I looked up is irrigated, and the map has it listed as “protected by ditch” as if the irrigation canal is actually flood protection, which it is not (see below). For large properties, the pin drops in the middle of the property, not necessarily where the structures are located. These were not new addresses, and were not necessarily rural locations. The ones that were not found either showed me the nearest location or just stated “unable to find…please try another location”. Out of 20 addresses, I was able to see results on 12 of them. To see how well the tool worked, I entered several addresses of family and friends. The maps do not provide a scale or a legend, and they are not printer-friendly, either. It was also difficult to determine property lines, since a parcel layer is not included and the map cannot be further customized. I was disappointed to find that you can’t click on the map to look at detailed information for another property-instead, you have to enter the address up at the top of the page and start over. You can view the current risk, as well as potential risk in the future. The Flood Risk Explorer section includes an interactive map where you can view other properties to see the potential risk that others in your area may face. The Flood Depth Explained section provides a visualization that helps you understand the damage that small amounts of water can cause to a home. ![]() I did notice that even for properties with a Flood Factor of 1, flood insurance is still recommended (see below). ![]() ![]() Most important is the Flood Factor, which is shown at the top left of the page and is one of the main purposes of the tool. The results were very easy to read and the information was helpful. I entered my home address to see what I could find. In a mission to fill that need, First Street Foundation has built a team of leading modelers, researchers, and data scientists to develop the first comprehensive, publicly available flood risk model in the United States ( ).Īs a Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM), I was curious about this new tool, so I went to to check it out. There has long been an urgent need for accurate, property-level, publicly available flood risk information in the United States. This leaves millions of households and property owners unaware of their true risk. …FEMA maps were not created to define risk for individual properties. Part of First Street Foundation’s mission states, On June 29, 2020, First Street Foundation released what USA Today calls, “A new, nationwide flood modeling tool (Bagenstose, et al, 2020)." What is First Street Foundation, and what does their new flood modeling tool do?Īccording to their website, First Street Foundation is a non-profit organization with a large team of talented individuals (/team). By Angela Parker, AICP, CFM / Western Planner Board President-Elect
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