FEMA puts flood insurance maps online
FEMA puts flood insurance maps online
By Preeti Vasishtha
GCN Staff
FEB. 13The Federal Emergency Management Agency today unveiled a Map Service Center that will let users of Flood Insurance Rate Maps order them online.
Mortgage lenders, realtors, settlement companies and other users will now be able to check the status of their flood map orders at
www.fema.gov/MSC.
The service will soon be available to homeowners and government agencies as well.
'FEMA's new online Map Service Center makes it easy for customers to identify and place orders immediately for the flood map panels they want, a process that used to take days,' said Margaret Lawless, acting executive director for mitigation.
Each time a house is sold, flood maps are used to determine whether the house is in an area with a risk of flooding, the level of risk, and whether flood insurance is required.
As part of its modernization efforts, FEMA will scan and digitize maps so customers can see and download them from the Internet.