In Key West, most buildings/lots are located within type 'A' flood zones. So it’s possible to have two 500-year floods in just two or three years. So when someone talks about a 500-year flood, it’s not that such a flood only happens once in 500 years, but that flood waters reached the 500-year flood level which has less than a 0.02% chance of happening during any year. The Shaded X-zone (dark grey) represents the 200 to 400-year floodplain, and the X-zone (teal) is the 500-year floodplain. The regulated floodplain (white) is known as the 100-year floodplain. The two shaded areas on the map show the only 'X' and Shaded 'X-Zones' within the city (except for Sunset Key). Buildings in these zones aren’t subject to enhanced building codes to prevent flood damage, yet flood insurance is available at a considerable discount.

On the map the X-Zone is shaded and labeled '0.02 PCT.' X-Zones are areas where the elevation is higher than the minimum expected flood levels. A FIRMette qualifies as an official FEMA flood map document. It’s a paper copy of a smaller user defined portion of a Flood Insurance Rate Map ( FIRM), created online from your computer, with most of the relevant flood zone mapping information you’ll likely need for insurance or permitting purposes Elevation Certificates will likely be needed as well). FIRMette: A small neighborhood sized FIRM map that can be printed on letter- sized paper (or larger).FIRM: Flood Insurance Rate Maps are large blueprint sized maps showing designated flood zones over a certain area.D-FIRM: An enhanced digital version of the FIRMs.To understand flood maps, it’s helpful to know a couple of terms: This tutorial shows how to make a FIRMette online. However, if you need an official printout showing flood zones for a specific area, you can print a FIRMette which is an official smaller area flood map for a location you select. These maps are more difficult to read and don’t have the detail enjoyed with the digital version. Enhanced digital maps with easy-to-recognize aerial photographs showing individual buildingsįEMA’s online paper maps are scanned images of the large paper maps it no longer prints for distribution.Copies of the traditional hard-to-read paper maps.

There are now two map formats available online: FEMA’s flood maps - known as Flood Insurance Rate Maps ( FIRM) - are available online.

Flood zone map