Adoption of Flood

Insurance Rate Maps by

Participating Communities

FEMA 495

January 2019
Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate 

Maps by Participating Communities

Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster in the United States, and it affects 

every State. Flooding can be caused by storms, dams or levees breaking, new development 

changing how water flows above and below the ground, snowmelt, and much more. The 

National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was established to reduce the financial risk for 

property owners and renters through insurance; in exchange, communities adopt floodplain 

management regulations that reduce future flood damages. This Federal program, established 

with the passage of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, has grown to include over 

22,000 participating communities and to provide over $1 trillion in flood insurance coverage.

This brochure addresses several questions about how 

communities adopt a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). 

As a participant in the NFIP, your community is responsible 

for making sure that its floodplain management regulations 

meet or exceed the minimum requirements of the NFIP. 

By law, the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal 

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cannot offer flood 

insurance in communities that do not adopt and enforce 

those regulations, which can be found in Title 44 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 60.3. You can 

also find them in model ordinances developed by most 

States and by FEMA’s Regional Offices.

The basis of your community’s floodplain management 

regulations is the flood hazard data FEMA provides. 

In support of the NFIP, FEMA identifies flood hazards 

nationwide and publishes and periodically updates flood 

hazard data. These data are provided to communities 

in the form of a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and 

Flood Insurance Study (FIS) report, typically prepared in 

a countywide format. While an FIS report accompanies 

most FIRMs, it is not created for all flood studies.

Knowing your flood hazards serves many important 

purposes, including an increased awareness of the hazard, 

especially for those who live and work in floodprone 

areas. The FIRM and FIS report provide States and 

communities with some of the information they need 

for land use planning, to reduce the risk of floodplain 

development, and to protect residents’ health and safety 

through codes and regulations. States and communities 

also use the information for emergency management.

What is the process for developing new flood 

hazard data or revising existing data?

During the flood study process, FEMA coordinates 

closely with communities to develop new flood risk 

data or revise existing data. This coordination may lead 

to new or updated flood hazard mapping (i.e., FIRM 

and FIS report), flood risk assessment projects, and/or 

mitigation planning assistance. In general, the process 

includes the following activities, listed on the next page:

Floodplain Management Regulations

Floodplain management regulations include zoning 

ordinances, subdivision regulations, building codes, health 

regulations, and special purpose ordinances (such as a 

floodplain ordinance, grading ordinance or erosion control 

ordinance). The term describes any combination of these 

State or local regulations that provides standards for 

preventing and reducing flood damage.

2 Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities
Flood Study and Adoption Timeline

• Under FEMA’s Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning 

(Risk MAP) program, FEMA with communities and 

other local stakeholders engages in a Discovery process 

to obtain a comprehensive picture of the community’s 

flooding issues, flood risk, and potential for flood 

mitigation activities, including the adoption of more 

restrictive floodplain management criteria. Stakeholders 

vary, but they typically include local officials, Tribal 

Nations, citizen associations, and representatives of 

levee boards, conservation districts, and economic 

development organizations. Information obtained 

during the Discovery meeting helps determine whether 

the community needs a flood risk assessment project, 

including new or updated flood hazard data and a 

corresponding FIRM and FIS report.

• If new or revised flood hazard data is needed, including 

an update to the FIRM and FIS report, FEMA works 

with the communities and other Discovery stakeholders 

to determine the parameters of the project, including 

which flooding sources and their extent (how much of 

the stream or coastline) to be studied.

• A detailed flood study typically includes determining 

the Base Flood Elevations (BFEs) and floodways for the 

project area. In addition, the mapping process includes 

activities such as obtaining the digital base map, 

developing the FIRM’s flood hazard database and, 

when appropriate, incorporating or revalidating 

previously issued Letters of Map Change, or LOMCs. 

LOMCs include Letters of Map Revision (LOMRs), 

Letters of Map Revision Based on Fill, and Letters of 

Map Amendment, which are used to amend or revise 

the effective FIRM and FIS report without physically 

revising and republishing these materials.

• When the study is complete, FEMA provides copies 

of a preliminary FIRM and FIS report for review and 

holds a Consultation Coordination Officer (CCO) 

meeting for officials from the communities involved 

in the study. FEMA may also hold public meetings—

often referred to as Open Houses—to introduce and 

discuss the preliminary FIRM and FIS report with 

community members.

• After the CCO meeting, FEMA initiates a 90-day period 

for communities to submit appeals about the new or 

modified flood hazard information shown on the FIRM. 

This can include new or modified BFEs, base flood 

depths, Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) boundaries or 

zone designations or regulatory floodways, SFHAs, which 

include all flood zones starting with the letters A or V, are 

the areas subject to inundation by the base (1-percentannual-chance). FEMA will also accept comments 

from communities regarding the study. Comments are 

objections to a base map feature modification/addition, 

One of the many homes that was flooded in Denham Springs, LA after 

prolonged rainfall devastated the community. August 2016

Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities 3
update to the Flood Insurance Study (FIS) report 

materials or any other non-appealable change. 

Comments usually involve changes to items such as 

road locations and road names, corporate limits 

updates, or other base map features.

• Before the appeal period is initiated, FEMA will publish 

a notice of proposed flood hazard determinations in 

the Federal Register and notify the community’s Chief 

Executive Officer. FEMA will then publish information 

about the flood hazard determinations at least twice in a 

local newspaper. The appeal period provides community 

officials and people who own or lease property in the 

community an opportunity to submit scientific or 

technical information if they believe the flood hazard 

determinations are scientifically or technically incorrect.

• Following the 90-day appeal period, FEMA resolves 

all appeals and finalizes the changes to the FIRM and 

FIS report.

• FEMA then sends each affected community a Letter 

of Final Determination (LFD), which establishes the 

final flood hazard data and the effective date of the 

new FIRM and FIS report for the community. The 

LFD also initiates the six-month period during which 

each community must adopt or amend its floodplain 

management regulations to reference the date and title 

of the new FIRM and FIS report.

• The FIRM and FIS report become effective at the end 

of the six-month period. At that time, flood insurance 

rates will be based on the new flood data, and the 

community will apply any floodplain management 

ordinances related to the new mapping. Federally 

insured or regulated lenders will also use the newly 

effective FIRM to determine if flood insurance is 

required as a condition of a loan.

• Almost 300 communities, States, and regional agencies 

have entered into agreements with FEMA to be 

active partners in flood hazard mapping under the 

Cooperating Technical Partners (CTP) program. These 

agencies participate by developing and updating FIRMs 

and performing related activities. (See the box on the 

inside of the back cover page for a brief description of 

the CTP program.)

What must an NFIP–participating community 

do when FEMA provides new or revised flood 

hazard data?

Each time FEMA provides your community with new 

or revised flood hazard data, you must either adopt 

new floodplain management regulations to incorporate 

the data into your ordinance or amend the existing 

ones to reference the new FIRM and FIS report. 

Community floodplain management regulations must 

continue to meet any additional State requirements, 

and should adopt them through a process that complies 

with their State’s requirements.

The following bullets will help you determine what 

type of changes your community will need to make to 

its floodplain management regulations when a new or 

revised FIRM and FIS report are provided:

• If your community’s floodplain management 

regulations comply with the NFIP requirements when 

the LFD is issued, you will only need to amend the 

map reference section of your floodplain management 

regulations to identify the new FIRM and FIS report.

Aerial view of the flooding from Hurricane Florence—Bladen County, NC, September 18, 2018

4 Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities
• If your community has a legally valid automatic 

adoption clause established in the map reference

section of the regulations, and the community’s 

regulations are otherwise compliant with the NFIP 

requirements, you do not need to amend the floodplain 

management regulations. Automatic adoption clauses 

adopt all future revisions to the FIRM without further 

action by the community, but they are not permitted 

in many States.

• If a new type of flood hazard data is added to your 

FIRM, your ordinance may need to meet additional 

requirements. This could apply when FEMA upgrades 

a flood zone without BFEs (such as Zone A) to a flood 

zone with BFEs (such as Zone AE) or adds a regulatory 

floodway or a Zone VE coastal high hazard designation.

• The LFD indicates the sections of the NFIP floodplain 

management requirements at 44 CFR Section 60.3 that 

your community must adopt, based on the type of 

flood hazard data that has been provided.

You can contact the FEMA Regional Office or your State 

NFIP Coordinating Agency for assistance on the specific 

requirements your community will need to adopt. 

(See the back cover page for contact information.)

If your community has adopted standards higher than the 

minimum requirements of the NFIP and participates in 

the Community Rating System (CRS), its residents may 

qualify for a reduction to their flood insurance premiums. 

(See page 7 for a description of the CRS.)

When must a community adopt the new or 

revised flood hazard data?

Your community must amend its existing floodplain 

management regulations or adopt new regulations 

before the effective date of the FIRM and FIS report, 

which is identified in the LFD. The LFD initiates the 

six-month adoption period.

Communities are encouraged to adopt the appropriate 

floodplain management regulations as soon as possible 

after the LFD is issued. The adopted regulations must be 

submitted to FEMA and the State and be approved by FEMA 

before the effective date of the FIRM and FIS report.

FEMA will send two letters notifying your community that 

it must have approved floodplain management regulations 

in place before the effective date of the FIRM. The first is sent 

90 days before the FIRM’s effective date, and the second is 

sent 30 days before. The second letter notifies the community 

that it will be suspended from the NFIP if it does not adopt 

the FIRM in time. Notice of the potential suspension is also 

published in the Federal Register.

If your community adopts or amends its floodplain 

management regulations in time (before the effective 

date of the FIRM and FIS report), and the FEMA Regional 

Office approves your regulations, the suspension will not 

go into effect, and the community will remain eligible to 

participate in the NFIP.

What happens if a community does not adopt the 

appropriate floodplain management regulations 

during the six-month adoption period?

If a community does not adopt new floodplain management 

regulations or amend its existing regulations and submit 

the adopted regulations to FEMA before the effective 

date of the FIRM and FIS report, the community will be 

suspended from the NFIP. The following sanctions apply 

if a community is suspended from the NFIP:

• Property owners will not be able to purchase NFIP 

flood insurance policies, and existing policies will 

not be renewed.

Did You Know?

A community may request that their proposed regulations 

be reviewed by the FEMA Regional Office at any time. 

In return, the Regional Office may request a copy of the 

adopted regulations from the community and may require 

an amendment or revision if it is determined that the 

community’s regulations are non-compliant.

FIRM

Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities 5
Digital Flood Hazard Information Resources

In accordance with the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004, 

all of FEMA’s flood mapping products are now prepared 

digitally. Users have several different digital options for 

viewing the flood hazard information shown on their 

community’s FIRM. All the digital flood hazard resources 

referenced below can be accessed through FEMA’s Map 

Service Center (MSC) at http://msc.fema.gov.

• Once the FIRM is effective, FEMA will provide your 

community digital copies of the FIRM panels. These will 

also be available through the MSC. Letters of Map Change 

are also available through the MSC (in .pdf format).

• FIRMettes show a section of a FIRM panel specified by a 

user, plus the map scale, and other legend information 

from the FIRM. FIRMettes can be created online through 

the MSC and printed or saved in .pdf format at no cost.

• The FIRM database is designed for use with Geographic 

Information System (GIS) software. GIS users can integrate 

their own local datasets with FEMA’s flood hazard data in 

the FIRM database to assist with floodplain management or 

mitigation planning. The FIRM database is provided to your 

community once the FIRM becomes effective and can also 

be downloaded through the MSC.

• The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) contains all 

effective digital flood hazard information from FIRM 

databases and LOMRs produced by FEMA, in one integrated 

nationwide dataset. It also contains the point locations of 

Letters of Map Revision Based on Fill and Letters of Map 

Amendment. The NFHL is available for viewing through 

FEMA’s online map viewer. It can also be viewed as a layer 

in Google Earth or accessed via Web Map Service (WMS), 

a web-based method of viewing map information using 

commercial GIS software. Additional information on these 

services is available through the MSC.

Note for communities that do not yet have digitally produced 

FIRMs: scanned digital versions of the paper FIRM panels are 

available through the MSC. However, since the FIRMs were 

not produced digitally, there is no FIRM database, and that 

flood hazard information is not included in the NFHL.

One way to apply floodplain management requirements is to elevate structures in certain flood zones. The two images above show an elevated home on pile 

foundation in a coastal community (left) and an elevated home on crawl space foundation in an inland community (right).

• Federal grants or loans for development will not be 

available in identified flood hazard areas. This applies 

to funds from programs administered by Federal 

agencies such as the Department of Housing and 

Urban Development, the Environmental Protection 

Agency, and the Small Business Administration.

• Federal disaster assistance will not be provided to 

permanently repair insurable buildings in identified 

flood hazard areas for damage caused by a flood.

• Federal mortgage insurance or loan guarantees, such 

as those written by the Federal Housing Administration

and the Department of Veteran Affairs, will not be 

provided in identified flood hazard areas.

• Federally insured or regulated lending institutions, 

such as banks and credit unions, are allowed to make 

conventional loans for insurable buildings in flood 

hazard areas of non-participating communities. 

However, the lender must notify applicants that the 

property is in a flood hazard area and that the property 

is not eligible for Federal disaster assistance. Some 

lenders may voluntarily choose not to make these loans.

If your community is suspended from participation in 

the NFIP, it may regain its eligibility by enacting the 

floodplain management measures established in the NFIP 

regulations (44 CFR 60.3). If development takes place in 

your community during the period of suspension that 

does not meet the minimum NFIP requirements, your 

community will be asked to take actions to reduce the 

increased flood hazard prior to its reinstatement.

6 Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities
Becoming a Cooperating Technical Partner

FEMA established 

the Cooperating 

Technical Partner 

program to increase 

local involvement in, 

and ownership of, the 

flood study process 

and the flood hazard 

data developed as 

part of that process. 

This program enables 

communities–as well 

as regional and State agencies–that have the interest, 

capabilities, and resources, to be active partners in FEMA’s 

flood hazard mapping program.

One of the major objectives of the CTP program is to recognize 

the States, regional agencies, and communities with proactive 

floodplain management programs that include identifying 

flood risk and getting the information incorporated into official 

FEMA flood hazard data. The CTP program maintains national 

standards consistent with the NFIP.

Some of the benefits of being a CTP include:

• CTPs can develop more detailed maps by making local 

geospatial data a part of the FIRM.

• CTPs receive support, such as access to existing data, 

access to custom-made FEMA tools, technical assistance, 

and national recognition.

• CTPs receive mentoring support, online examples of 

“best practices,” and free training.

• Communities that participate in the Community Rating 

System and also become CTPs (or those in an area 

covered by a regional or State CTP) may be eligible to 

receive CRS credit for CTP activities.

Another major objective and benefit of the CTP program is 

to share and leverage available funding and local data, to 

make the most of limited resources. Communities, States, 

and regional agencies can take advantage of these benefits 

by entering into an agreement with FEMA that formalizes the 

types of mapping activities and support the CTP will provide. 

Almost 300 communities, States, and regional agencies 

participate in the CTP program.

Becoming an NFIP Community Rating System Community

The NFIP Community 

Rating System 

recognizes community 

floodplain management 

practices that 

exceed the minimum 

requirements of the 

NFIP. The CRS 

recognizes these efforts 

by reducing the cost of 

flood insurance premiums from 5 percent to 45 percent for 

flood insurance policies in participating communities.

Many communities may already be involved in activities that 

would earn credit under the CRS and reduce flood insurance 

premiums for their residents. Here are a few examples:

• Adopting and enforcing more protective building standards 

that result in safer new construction

• Informing the public about flood hazards and flood 

insurance and about how to reduce flood damage

• Preserving open space in the floodplain

To receive CRS credit, your community must submit a CRS 

application that identifies the floodplain management practices 

you are applying. (FEMA can help with the application.) After 

FEMA reviews and verifies your application, the flood insurance 

premium discounts will go into effect. The amount of the 

discount depends on the number of CRS-credited activities 

your community performs.

Community participation in the CRS has many benefits:

• Discounts for flood insurance premiums from 5 percent 

to 45 percent

• Enhanced public safety

• Reduced flood damage

• Increased environmental protection

• Informed community residents supporting improved flood 

protection measures that will make their neighborhoods 

safer from flood risks.

To learn more about becoming a CTP, visit https://www.fema.gov/cooperating-technical-partners-program or contact your 

FEMA regional office (see back page for contact information).

To learn more about CRS, visit https://www.fema.gov/community-rating-system.

Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities 7
FOR ASSISTANCE

If your community needs assistance to join the NFIP, you can contact the FEMA Regional Office 

(see below for address and telephone number). You can also contact your 

State Coordinating Agency for the NFIP. You can go to https://www.fema.gov/fema-regional-contacts

for a listing of the FEMA Regional Offices or 

http://www.floods.org/index.asp?menuID=274&firstlevelmenuID=185&siteID=1 

for the NFIP State Coordinating Agencies.

REGION I

CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT

99 High Street

Boston, MA 02110

(877) 336-2734

REGION II

NJ, NY, PR, VI

26 Federal Plaza, Suite 1307

New York, NY 10278

(800) 611-6122

REGION III

DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV

615 Chestnut Street

One Independence Mall, 6th Floor

Philadelphia, PA 19106

(215) 931-5500

REGION IV

AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN

3003 Chamblee Tucker Road

Atlanta, GA 30341

(770) 220-5200

REGION V

IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI

536 South Clark Street, 6th Floor

Chicago, IL 60605

(312) 408-5500

REGION VI

AR, LA, NM, OK, TX

FRC 800 North Loop 288

Denton, TX 76209

(940) 898-5399

REGION VII

IA, KS, MO, NE

9221 Ward Parkway

Kansas City, MO 64114

(816) 283-7061

REGION VIII

CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY

Denver Federal Center

Building 710, Box 25267

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 235-4800

REGION IX

AZ, CA, HI, NV, American Samoa,

Guam, Marshall Islands,

and Northern Mariana Islands

1111 Broadway, Suite 1200

Oakland, CA 94607

(800) 611-6122

REGION X

AK, ID, OR, WA

Federal Regional Center

130 – 228th Street, Southwest

Bothell, WA 98021

(425) 487-4600