Maybe even things from the past can bite back if you're not careful enough.
In today's video, we cover one of the common questions "why is a dried-up creek putting me in a high-risk flood zone when it hasn't had water for years?" This goes the same for most property owners which get shocked with expensive flood insurance premiums due to these dried-up bodies of water.
First and foremost, it's important to remember — just like what you'll see in the video — that these bodies of water can still collect water sometimes which essentially still makes it a flood hazard. Even if your property isn't included in that area, maybe it's an old dried-up river, it still presents a higher flood risk since there can be some causes for these areas to collect water. Say, you had a small amount of rain, for your home this won't really mean much since it's basically gone once the sun's up, but it's a different story since some areas can collect this water for a longer amount of time.
In this kind of situation, it's important to understand where the federal government is coming from. Most likely they're just being cautious since it's a known fact that if a large amount of floodwater comes through these areas, it can impact your property. This doesn't mean that you can't get your property out of these flood zones on the flood map. You can definitely get a letter of map amendment and elevation certificate to show your flood insurer that you're basically in a low-risk flood zone, but this won't mean that there will be a zero percent chance of flooding on your property when a storm hits hard or maybe some form of excess water flows into that area.
The risk of flooding is always there even in low-risk flood zones. Take for example how areas that are in the preferred flood zone or flood zone X, unfortunately, these areas are experiencing 26% to 30% of floodings. As floodplain devolves, being reactive might be the last thing you want to do.
On this one, let's entertain the idea of removing yourself from that flood zone designation that doesn't really fit your property's situation.
Now, I mentioned that you can use an elevation certificate to show that you're generally at a lower risk for flooding than what was originally shown due to that pesky creek. You'll have to get your local licensed surveyor or engineer to fill up this certificate. You can send this to us and we can check if you can your property removed.
If you have any questions on flood insurance claims, flood insurance rate map changes, how to mitigate flood damage, or any questions on floods, remember that we have an educational background on flood mitigation. If you need help, you can always reach out to us by clicking the links below.
