Karol L. Grove Licensed Professional Surveyor Certified Floodplain Manager 1 Establishing the BFE Zone A Where do we go? Non Studied Area? 2 Bridge Design 3 1
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Look at the age of the culvert or bridge 7 Zone A: (do a little more) How important is it to do a little more work in the process of determining a Base Flood Zone (BFE) Elevation in a Zone A? 8 The Story of 2 Houses 9 3
2 LOMA s --- 2 BFE s 10 EXTRA WORK - VERY IMPORTANT 11 Shooting the Structure Checking the LAG 12 4
Non-Studied Area Mini -Flood Insurance Study 13 Shoot Typical Cross-Section 14 Lets talk Common Sense 15 5
What if the structure is too low??? 16 What if we cannot eliminate the Flood Insurance Requirement? If done correctly, in most cases we can get a 75% reduction in your Flood Insurance Premium. Guaranteed!! 17 ELEVATION CERTIFICATES MISTAKES MANY MANY MISTAKES!!! 18 6
Why do we ask what year a structure was built? Pre-FIRM Vs Post-FIRM 19 Community Status Book 20 Community Status Book Wisconsin 21 7
BW-12 & ELEVATION CERTIFICATES 22 INSURANCE AGENTS Clueless 23 INSURANCE AGENTS Writing a Flood Insurance Policy Homeowners have options Reading the Elevation Certificate Lowest Floor vs Lowest Adjacent Grade Conditions for installing Flood Vents 24 8
Let s talk NON COMPLIANT vs. COMPLIANT 25 What if the structure is too low??? 26 How do we make a structure Compliant? Flood Vents Elevating Mechanicals Adjusting Elevations 27 9
Important Elevations: 28 Standard Vent 42 sq. in. 29 Vents vs. Flood Vents 30 10
ENGINEERED FLOOD VENTS 31 32 33 11
Elevating Mechanicals.AC Units 34 35 ENGINEERED FLOOD VENTS Placement of vents?? Number of vents?? 36 12
Can we make this house Compliant??? 37 38 SO WHAT IF The floor of my basement/crawlspace is lower than the ground level; what do I do? What you do is pay extremely high flood insurance premiums. According to FEMA guidelines in Technical Bulletin 1 08, if all four sides of the structure are below grade by even one inch, the structure has a basement. In a flood zone, having a basement almost guarantees very high flood insurance rates. 39 13
SO WHAT DO YOU DO TO GET PREMIUMS DOWN? To lower your premium, you need to equalize the interior and exterior grade on at least one side of the house. How do you do that??? The easiest way to do this is to either add fill to the inside of the basement until at least one wall is at or above exterior grade, or to dig out the ground outside until it is at or below the interior grade (floor) level. This will turn your basement into a crawlspace, which (if properly vented) should have drastically lower flood insurance rates. 40 VACANT LAND If it is located completely within a 1% Floodplain Area Is it buildable??? 41 Our Role as professionals in the 21 st Century LOMA eloma LOMR-F The Expert Teacher 42 14
Navigating FEMA s Websites 43 Google Earth Overlay Map Service Center Important Numbers: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 1 877 336 2627 (FEMA Map SpecialistsHotline) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) 1 800 638 6620 Important Websites: https://msc.fema.gov https://hazards.fema.gov 44 Using the FEMA Map Overlay with Google Earth: 1. You will first need to load the Free Google Earth Download onto the computer 2. Then go to https://hazards.fema.gov 3. Click on Tools & Links 4. On the right side column click the second bullet point down Using the National Flood Hazard Layer in Google Earth 5. Scroll half way down to the FEMA NFHL, under this you will click on a link FEMA NFHL v3.0.kmz 6. This will bring up the FEMA Map Overlay on Google Earth. You can feed any address in at the top left corner of the screen. 45 15
FACT: The less we know about Flood Zones. The more money leaves our State! 46 QUESTIONS?? 47 16