FLOOD00938

• County: Statewide
• Title: Guide to Flood Insurance Rate Maps
• Date: 5/1/1988
• Prepared By: FEMA
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Historic FEMA Regulatory Floodplain Information

GUIDE TO FLOOD INSURANCE RATE MAPS 5

the design of the Hold FIRM in several
ways to better meet those needs.

The two most significant changes are
that newer Hold FIRMs include
floodways and floodplain management
information not shown on older FIRMs,
and newer Hold FIRMs present a
simplified, or compressed, set of
insurance zone designations.

. Countywide FIRM-In the past, each
FIRM usually covered only one
community, If the mapped community
was a county, flooding information was
shown only for those areas within the
jurisdiction of the county government,
the unincorporated areas.

Therefore, on the FIRMs for most
counties, no flooding information has
been shown for the incorporated
communities within those counties, The
corporate limits of the communities have
been shown in the proper location, but
the areas within the limits remain blank.
Separate FIRMs have been prepared for
the incorporated communities,

More recently, several Hold countywide
FIRMs have been produced, each of
which shows flooding information for the
entire geographic area of a county,
including the incorporated communities
within the county, As a result, each
countywide FIRM becomes the official
source of flood risk data for several
communities.

The following sections provide a
complete description of the key elements
of FIRM Indexes and FIRM panels, Keep
in mind, however, that as a result of
variations in FIRM format and design,
not all of the elements described appear
on every FIRM,

KEY ELEMENTS
OF THE FIRM
INDEX

Flat FIRMs, and Hold FIRMs composed
of more than one panel, are accom,
panied by Indexes. The FIRM Index
shows the outline of the mapped
community and the numbers and layout
of the individual FIRM panels that cover
the community, The FIRM Index also
contains a title box, in which the name
of the mapped community appears,

Figures 1 through 3 illustrate the
following key elements of Flat FIRM
Indexes and Z,Fold FIRM Indexes.

A. Community Name
Identifies the mapped community, the
community type (e.g.. town, city, county),
and the county and state in which the
community is situated, When the
mapped community is a county, the
words "Unincorporated Areas" appear
below the county name, indicating that
the incorporated communities within the
county are not covered.

On countywide FIRMs, the words "And
Incorporated Areas" appear as part of
the community name, indicating that the
entire geographic area of the county is
covered, including the incorporated
communities within the county,

B. Community Number
Six,digit NFIP identification number for
the mapped community, The community
number is often followed by a letter
suffix, which is increased alphabetically
each time the FIRM is revised,