FEMA Releases New Flood Maps

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently revised flood maps covering sections of New York City and Westchester. During Hurricane Sandy, raging floodwaters went far beyond the borders of the danger zones drawn on earlier maps. New York’s flood maps hadn’t been updated since the 1980s and do not reflect today’s risks. The new interactive map that FEMA has issued shows double the number of structures at risk of flooding from another Hurricane Sandy, including in southern Brooklyn, the Rockaways, and Staten Island.

People whose homes are in the flood zone will have two years to elevate their buildings to protect them from surging seawater or begin to face increases in their flood insurance premiums. The increased premiums will be phased in over several years once the maps are adopted — likely in 2015.

Parts of southern Brooklyn, the Rockaways, and Staten Island not previously labeled at risk were added to flood zones on the new maps. And maps for Manhattan and the Bronx are due out next month.

For more information, visit www.region2coastal.com.

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