Flood Insurance Rate Maps
Sacramento County will soon have new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood zone maps, known as Flood Insurance Rate Maps. FEMA is updating and modernizing the existing maps for Sacramento County and other communities across the United States. They have reviewed and determined that several areas of the County, including Walnut grove , Freeport, Hood, Courtland, Locke and Delta Islands will be affected. This means property owners will likely have their flood zones re-designated as well. Homes in areas protected by de-accredited levees will be required to purchase flood insurance if they have a federally backed mortgage. When the County receives the new maps they will be posted on this website.
Find out which areas of the County this currently affects.
We highly recommend contacting your homeowners' insurance agent to discuss the advantages of acquiring flood insurance before any changes to the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps.
Provisional Accreditation
FEMA has notified Sacramento County (view letter from FEMA) that certain levees in our community have been approved
for provisional accreditation. Provisional Accreditation means that for an interim period of time, FEMA will continue to recognize that those levees provide 100-year flood protection. However, the owners and maintenance districts for those levees have until January 25, 2011 to gather all field data and engineering reports necessary to formally certify that the levees meet
federal levee standards (44CFR65.10) or they will be de-accredited after that date and will no longer be recognized by FEMA as providing 100-year flood protection. For those levees that have already been denied provisional accreditation, FEMA has stated that flood insurance is currently recommended for the properties behind those levees and that flood insurance will soon be required in the future.
FEMA’s actions affect building standards in areas behind these levees. If you plan on building a new structure or substantially improving an existing one in an area that is behind one of these levees, please contact our office immediately. Depending on the type of project and its location , the structure may need to be elevated significantly so it is deemed safe from flooding and to meet the requirements of FEMA and the
County Floodplain Management Ordinance. So before starting any construction, please contact our office at (916) 874-6484 or 874-6490 or visit us at 827-7th Street, Room 430, Sacramento to check if your structure will need to be elevated.
The next Board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at the County Administration Building: 700 H Street, Sacramento, CA. When the meeting date and time has been confirmed, we will post the information on our website.
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