A day ahead of schedule, FEMA has rolled out its its revised flood maps that give people in four counties in New Jersey their true flood zones and elevations, showing superstorm Sandy victims how high they must raise their homes. The website that previously allowed people to plug in their addresses and see only the Advisory Base Flood Elevations and preliminary flood zones has been updated and is live for the public. That Web address for the “preliminary working maps” for residents in Atlantic, Hudson, Monmouth and Ocean counties is: region2coastal/sandy/table. On Friday, local officials who had just been briefed by FEMA said the highest-risk flood zones, the V or velocity zones, have been scaled back in Ocean County by nearly 50 percent in these freshly-released maps. The difference between being in a V zone or the less-hazardous A Zone can be tens of thousands of dollars because of added measures needed to protect a home from wave action. Many Sandy victims have been left hanging, not sure how high to elevate their homes or how much work needs to go into rebuilt foundations because the advisory flood maps were based on limited data. They’ve had to decide on whether to rebuild or wait. The information on the website is the “best available flood hazard data” and release will provide them with the information many have been waiting for, although it won’t be made final for at least a year and a half. The true flood and elevation levels now on the Web site form the basis for the regulatory process. Barring any successful challenges, that information will eventually set flood insurance premiums, FEMA officials said. Once that process is complete, the final maps are expected to be released in late 2014 or early 2015.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:23:36 +0000
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