FEMA

What is FEMA

South Carolina residents have faced and continue to face destruction and danger from floods and hurricanes every year. These past two decades alone, there have already been more than $7 billion recorded damages that have been caused by floods and hurricanes. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) identifies these areas as floodplains.

FEMA manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) which is a Federal program that enables property owners in participating communities such as South Carolina to purchase flood insurance as protection against flood losses.

The NFIP requires a document called the Elevation Certificate. It is an actual field survey by a licensed professional surveyor like Surveying Consultants. It compares house and building elevations to the local flood elevation as determined by FEMA.

Surveying Consultants has both the expertise and experience to supply accurate data for FEMA elevation certification, both for residential and commercial properties. Contact us today!

Call Surveying Consultants at 843-815-3304!

More on FEMA Elevation Certificates

Based on the previous history, the government identifies and maps certain areas of land that are prone to flooding. These maps are changed as flood patterns emerge. The land upon which flooding is expected to occur within 100 years is considered a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), and FEMA requires any parcel of land purchased in these areas to carry flood insurance as prescribed by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

To establish whether flood insurance is required and what the premiums will be, a registered surveyor will need to carry out a comprehensive field analysis and fill out a FEMA elevation certificate. Initially, the surveyor identifies the property location on a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) which shows the 100-year flood location and AE zones, and their 100-year flood values. The surveyor takes those values and determines the elevation of the house and adjacent ground level.

If the land in question has an existing elevation certificate (EC) on file and no modifications are required, then you won’t be asked for a new one in order to get flood insurance. However, there are times when a new elevation certification is required (or when you want to obtain one by yourself). For instance:

  • If you are making considerable structural modifications to the property
  • If there is no EC on file because the FIRM maps were not drawn or enforced the last time the property changed hands
  • If the FIRM maps have been recently updated to include your property (in other words, your land is now on a floodplain when it did not use to be)
  • If you suspect that your property’s flood rating has changed, and you want to request a letter of map amendment (LOMA) to change its status

Get Your FEMA Elevation Certificate at Surveying Consultants

Whether you’re being required an elevation certificate or you are requesting it on your own, it’s vital to have accurate results to make sure that you know the risks in purchasing the property, as well as to keep your insurance premiums as low as possible.

We are an experienced team of professionals that utilize state-of-the-art equipment and software such as Total Stations, Data Collectors, GPS Receivers and Robotic Stations to provide the most accurate and reliable data for our clients.

We service Hilton Head, Bluffton, and the greater Beaufort areas of South Carolina as well as Savannah, Georgia.

For more information on FEMA elevation certification…

Contact Surveying Consultants at 843-815-3304!

Surveying Consultants
17 Sherington Dr # C, Bluffton, SC 29910
843-815-3304