FLOODPLAINS

The National Flood Insurance Program

MCD has been a resource for floodplain information for many years, although we are not directly involved in enforcing floodplain-management regulations or the flood insurance program. Each participating city or county is responsible for retaining copies of the flood maps and enforcing the floodplain regulations for its jurisdiction. Mortgage lenders determine if flood insurance is required for individual properties.

The National Flood Insurance Program was created in 1968 to provide affordable flood insurance to property owners and to assist communities in implementing and enforcing regulations that control construction and development in floodplain areas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), administers the program. FEMA created floodplain maps for thousands of cities, counties and villages to identify flood-prone properties and to define areas where management of floodplain development was necessary.

MCD provided hydrologic data and historic flood information to FEMA for the original mapping projects. Miami Conservancy District also reviewed many of the draft maps and assisted communities in the Great Miami River Watershed in implementing floodplain management. 

In 2004, Congress ordered FEMA to complete a nationwide map modernization program within five years. The end product will be Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs). Insurance companies will set their rates based on these maps. Local communities also will use the DFIRMs for floodplain development enforcement.

Mad modernization is being done on a county-by-county basis. For the updated DFIRMs to continue to recognize levees as providing flood protection to the communities, the levees must be certified by their owner and accredited by FEMA. The levees must show they can protect against the 1 percent annual flood chance.

The levee accreditation requirements are spelled out in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 44-65.10. The levee owner must provide data, drawings, and analyses for each section of the levee that show that the levee meets the standards in 44CFR 65.10. A professional engineer must certify the document containing the data and analyses.

FEMA allows for levees to be provisionally accredited for two years while the levee owner completes the certification activities if preliminary information shows the levees have no major flaws to begin with. FEMA will evaluate the certified levee data submitted by the levee owner and determine whether the levee is accredited.

Accreditation is not a guarantee of performance.

For site-specific flood information, please contact the city or county in which the property is located.