Building in Flood Zone A

Going through that right now. 1" of water on my property in 2016 after 33" of rain in 24hrs. Water gone in 2 hrs.

You'll have to have a survey to mark your elevation for the finished floor of the home. It will be 1ft above base flood elevation. The surveyor will usually handle the Loma paperwork after you build and then you won't have to pay crazy high flood insurance. FEMA determines the flood zone map. I'm not sure if you can get the A changed to the zone x

I was hoping you could get it changed and tell me how

I'm looking at 4' of dirt

Your rate is based on how high your structure is vs. the BFE. The higher you go above the BFE the cheaper the insurance.

0 = structure is at BFE = average rate
+1 = structure is 1' above BFE = better rate than 0
+2 = structure is 2' above BFE = better rate than +1.
-1 = structure is 1' below BFE = worse rate than 0

FEMA maps do change over time so this means today you can be a +2 but ten years from now you might be in a +1.

I don't know if this is still a fact but FEMA rounds off to the nearest foot for rating even though the EC is in tenths of feet.

This means 0.6' above the BFE is rated at a +1 and 1.6 is rated at a +2.

Please note local governments, city or parish can have higher elevations requirements than the FEMA maps. This is called freeboard. Check with the local Floodplain manager for this info.

Is there any way to get the zone X rate


read this

LINK .

I just went through this exact scenario. I’m going to assume your building on a slab. Call your local floodplain administrator and ask what the freeboard requirement is. Ours is a finished floor height 1’ above BFE. You can do this two ways - bring in fill dirt for a pad and ensure it’s above the BFE, then have a surveyor file a LOMR-F on the elevated dirt. The other option is to build and then have the surveyor complete a LOMR-F on the actual structure. We went with the dirt pad route so that we don’t have to carry flood insurance during construction. Your final elevation certificate is where you will prove you met the freeboard requirement. If your have a LOMR-F then you won’t be in flood zone A anymore and won’t have to carry flood insurance at all - it does change the map - it’s a letter of map amendment.

Yep, I can see that causing a problem. That’s why you build extras like patios, decks, etc after all inspections and insurance people are long gone.

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Great advice. Thanks

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x zone vs a zone doesn't mean rates are cheaper anymore.