https://hazards.fema.gov/femaportal/wps/portal/
For those that haven't noticed, FEMA's FIRMETTE website has been down all week. Sucks for me, because here in coastal Florida I check every job before giving a quote. That link above is to a nice tool I found on the FEMA website. You put in your property address, and it gives you a GIS map of the area with the FEMA zones as layers. If the click the "e-zi" botton, then click near your parcel on the map, it gives you a report for the site with Zone, BFE, Map #, Effective Date, etc...
Nothing "official" there, but good for quote research in most cases.
I might have spoke too soon on that. I looks like that site only works in areas where the maps have been recently updated.
Even cooler, especially if you're checking frequently for proposals:
Same Portal http://hazards.fema.gov
Tools for Professionals left margin - More Tools
Get the MIP Mapping tools. I use the link for ArcGIS Explorer (free download from ESRI), but you may be more of a Google Earth guy. Take your pick. But I'm going to explain it for Explorer.
Copy the weblink described for NFHL WMS Instructions
Open ArcGIS Explorer. I prefer the Bing Maps Hybrid view.
Use the Add Content Menu Pick
Pick the WMS option.
Paste your link from above into the box.
You'll get streaming flood map delineations onto your view. You can adjust the transparency and even peel back the overlay if you need to see in detail what's below.
I haven't tried the link into Google Earth, but it probably works in a similar fashion.
You can search your site by address quickly and easily.
Now that's cool......
When will the fema site be back up?
Does anybody know?
Anybody's guess.
It was originally scheduled for this past Tuesday, but they've been daily extending the time.....
I wonder if they hired the same company that RPLS.com did. 😉