Enter an address and get its effective FEMA flood zone straight from the National Flood Hazard Layer, plus the base flood elevation when one is mapped. No account, no download, no navigating the FEMA Map Service Center.
Real data, no fakes. FEMA NFHL · USFWS NWI · USDA SSURGO · USGS 3DEP & NHD · NOAA Atlas 14
Every U.S. lender, insurer, and building department keys off the same map: FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL). SitePrior queries that layer live for the coordinates of your address and returns the effective zone designation, the base flood elevation (BFE) where FEMA has computed one, and the flood insurance rate map panel it came from. Nothing is cached or hand-copied, so what you see is what a lender's flood determination vendor will see.
The same free preview also shows the other layers that decide whether a flood-zone lot is workable: distance to the nearest mapped stream, soil drainage class, slope, and the design rainfall depths for the site.
| Zone | Plain English | Insurance |
|---|---|---|
| X (unshaded) | Outside the 500-year floodplain. Minimal mapped risk. | Optional, cheap |
| X (shaded) / B | Between the 100-year and 500-year floodplain. Moderate risk. | Optional, worth pricing |
| A | 100-year floodplain, no BFE computed. You may have to pay for the elevation study. | Mandatory with a federally backed loan |
| AE | 100-year floodplain with a computed BFE. Build at or above it plus local freeboard. | Mandatory with a federally backed loan |
| AO / AH | Shallow sheet flow or ponding, 1 to 3 ft typical. | Mandatory with a federally backed loan |
| VE / V | Coastal high-hazard with wave action. Elevated, open-foundation construction required. | Mandatory, expensive |
| Floodway | The part of the AE zone that carries the flood. New structures are usually prohibited. | Often uninsurable for new build |
A zone designation tells you where FEMA drew the line, not where the water goes on your lot. Two AE parcels can be opposites: one is a fringe lot that needs three feet of fill, the other has its only buildable corner inside the floodway. Zone X lots flood too, usually from local drainage that FEMA never mapped. That is why the free preview pairs the zone with stream distance, slope, and soil group, and why the $29 report turns those into a ranked list of flags with cost ranges and the professional to call.
Yes. The flood zone, base flood elevation, and every other federal data layer in the preview are free with no account. The $29 report adds the engineer's interpretation: what each flag means for this lot, what it typically costs, and which professional to hire next.
Directly from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer web service, the same effective map data used for lender flood determinations. SitePrior does not modify the values. If FEMA has no effective map for a location, the preview says so.
No. Lenders order a Standard Flood Hazard Determination from a certified vendor. This lookup tells you the answer before you are under contract, which is when it is still useful. Treat it as a screening result, not a certification.
Possibly both. FEMA maps riverine and coastal flooding at a community scale and does not map most local drainage problems. A zone X lot at the bottom of a hill with a Group D soil can pond every big storm. Check the slope, soil, and stream-distance layers in the same preview, and walk the lot after a heavy rain.