Blatant FEMA Floodzone Mess

Common sense is extremely rare when it comes to FEMA and floodplain issues. Their number one goal is to keep everybody away from flood zones (especially by providing crappy information that it clearly not tied to the real world).

"Shouldn't FEMA be held accountable for some of their mapping integrity?"

FEMA is an agency of the U.S. Federal Government and is accountable to no one.

I'm buying an acre in northwest Georgia that is near but does not touch Cane Creek. In many areas on the flood maps the flood zone lines do not follow the creek.

Are you saying that the flood zone doesn't even cover Cane Creek in some areas? The reason I ask is because this was the situation here before the new ZoneA maps were released.

The old quad sheet dotted flood maps were digitized by someone and then "sampled" into the county GIS causing havoc all over the county. The county was badgered enough by land owners that they finally removed those flood zones from their GIS. Now the new fresh ZoneA maps are out and they at least cover the water, but aren't a professional product and each person has to hire an engineer to get out of the Zone.

If they are as bad as you say (and I wouldn't be the least surprised to find that they are) then start with the county. Lenders use the GIS to tell people they need insurance. Meet with the county engineer and let him know your concerns. You may be one of many complaining. And they may remove it from the GIS like they did here.

Beyond that:

In my state you need to be a PE to do a flood zone, and if it was improperly done or not done and signed off by a PE you can complain to the board.

You can hope the tick off a senator or other high official who can bring some pressure to bear.

The FEMA flood program is designed to administer insurance. As such they have chosen objectivity and repeatability over actual risk mitigation. Once I realized that my success in dealing with them increased dramatically. ..

There is no telling how many thousands of dollars we've billed the past few years for elevation certificates and LOMAs along Kentucky Lake.

TVA built the lake took a flowage easement in all areas that would flood. TVA monitors the lake to ensure that no structures are built within it's flowage easement.

None of that matters. Every lot that touches the lake is in Zone AE and requires either an elevation certificate or a LOMA.

You want a government entity to take responsibility for their screw-up? Ha Ha!! Good luck on that.

On a survey I did in 2001 Butte MT based on the 1979 maps, the BFE was 1 ft below the bed of the stream which has 1 ft normal water and with 4 ft high banks. This was only 400 feet from the FEMA benchmark. I could have told the buyer "technically" you could build in the willow swamp 50 ft from the Creek. Common sense prevailed: I recommended 15 ft. higher and 250 feet away, he agreed.

We have spent the last 5 years working for a community on FEMA remapping. The new maps were sent to us for review, and one of the items we noted is that the PLSS lines were shifted ±75' north and ±50' east of their actual locations on the ground. We notified FEMA and asked them where their PLSS data came from. They have been unable to answer this question for over two months - it appears as if no one has EVER asked this question before! The whole FEMA operation is an absolute sham...

We did one a few years ago where the stream had been relocated. New maps were proposed but not yet official and showed the stream running through the middle of the clients house. I contacted FEMA and was told the Municipality is responsible for final approval of the maps. Our client had to buy flood insurance because our elevation certificate was based on bad data. A year later he let me know the map had been amended and he was no longer in the flood zone.