Is Your Property in a Special Flood Hazard Area?

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To find out what flood zone your property is in, please visit FEMA:

  • Fill out your address in the upper left hand corner.
  • Determine what zone your property is located in. If your property is in Zone A*, your lender will require you to provide flood insurance.

If you need further assistance in reading the map, please contact Daniel Hsieh at (714) 548-3466 or Harry Tran at (714) 548-3465.

*Zone A: Special flood hazard area subject to inundation by the 1% annual chance flood event.

What Are the Odds of Being Flooded?

The term “100-year flood” has caused much confusion of people not familiar with statistics. Another way to look at flood risk is to think of the odds that a 100-year flood will happen sometime during the life of a 30-year mortgage-a 26% chance for a structure located in the SHA.

Chance of Flooding over a Period of Years

Time Period Flood Size

10-Year 25-Year 50-Year 100-Year
1 Year 10% 4% 2% 1%
10 Years 65% 34% 18% 10%
20 Years 88% 56% 33% 18%
30 Years 96% 71% 45% 26%
50 Years 99% 87% 64% 39%

Even these numbers do not convey the true flood risk because they focus on the larger, less frequent, floods. If a house is low enough, it may be subject to the 10 or 25-year flood. Suring a 30-year mortgage, it may have a 26% chance of being hit by the 100-year flood, but the odd are 96% (nearly guaranteed) that it will be hit by a 10-year flood. Compare those odds to the only 1-2% chance that the house will catch fire during the same 30-year mortgage.