Westminster, CA
Home MenuIs Your Property in a Special Flood Hazard Area?
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.