This is my page to go over my most recent information on flooding in the Village of North Palm Beach. First, THIS LINK is to the Village of North Palm Beach page on Hurricane Preparedness . Interesting here is that the Village has one page for flood information as well as one for hurricane preparedness which is great. In North Palm Beach there are many different concerns. The houses east of US-1 and around the lagoon are susceptible to both flooding and storm surge inundation. Communities like Prosperity Harbor and Harbour Isles in particular are in this area.
It late 2024 it was announced that FEMA would finally be adopting the new FIRMS first proposed pre-COVID. These will be effective in Dec 2024.
In September 2021 the NFIP went to “Risk Rating 2.0” which I did an extensive post about so in short strokes each policy will now be rated on an individual risk basis upon some new factors. The FIRM maps will ONLY dictate as to if your lender will require you to carry flood insurance. The whole Base Flood Elevation (BFE), finished floor elevation and free board type of calculations will no longer be used. Your agent MAY still use a flood elevation certificate completed by a surveyor. I recommend everyone get one so as to ensure your rating is accurate. Use this link to look up how your property will be rated in the new system. FEMA did this pdf for some broad strokes on the changes in Florida
If you are reading this it’s probably because the flood zone (FIRM) maps are proposed to be changed. You may want to click on this link to find your PROPOSED NEW FLOOD ZONE . These maps are ow used by mortgage companies to determine if flood insurance is a requirement of your loan. And they are used by local planners. Most notably to determine if you must raise the elevation of your house when rebuilding after say a hurricane or doing a major renovation, or building a new house.
The new proposed flood maps were released in December 2019 (not a typo, COVID has delayed the implementation of these and now the county is contesting them.) and North Palm Beach has a page to discuss them. About 1,400 Village properties are proposed to be moved from lower risk flood zones into a high risk Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) such as zone AE. The net affect of that is that your lender will now require a flood policy on your property. But as of Nov 2021 these new maps for our area have yet t be adopted. This most likely due to the fact that PB County has made an official objection to the adoption of the new maps. They basically took the examples I gave them and paid an engineering firm to write up a report. And I am A-OK with that. BUT each municipality was required to officially object to the map but most, like NPB, did not. Even though the county made their report available for FREE to all the municipalities. Anyway, the new map has not ben adopted yet, but it will.
Best to go right to the source an look up the property. Use the FEMA Map site to locate your property and print out a FIRMette (small version of this map) showing it. THIS IS THE CURRENT MAP.
In North Palm they have the new maps up the new maps up but otherwise you need to copy the FIRM panel number, such 12099C0383 (without the F) and then look this up under the MSC Search al products tab and look at the proposed FIRM 12099C0383G. Download and look at it.
Are you in an area that shows ANY shading or coloring? If not then you are in an area labeled Zone X (note this is NOT Shaded Zone X) and is an Area of Minimal Flood Hazard. Basically if there’s no colored shading (black or bluish green dots) on the map then you are NOT in a flood zone. If the property is shaded (black dots), then yes then you are in some degree of a flood zone called Shaded Zone X. This is the old Zone C. If the property is in an area shaded by the bluish green dots then it IS in a SFHA be AE or VE or whatever. The Special Flood Hazard Areas or SFHA. (SFHA’s are show on the map as Zones A, AO, AH, A1-30, AE, A99, AR, AR/A1-30, AR/AE, AR/AO, AR/AH, AR/A, VO, V1-30, VE, and V.) Take note of this zone (say AE) and if it is shown what the (Elev. = X Feet). This X feet elevation is called the Base Flood Elevation or BFE and is now by the 1988 NGVD datum. Is the elevation of your finished floor of your house higher than the BFE? What about the lowest adjacent grade (LAG)? If any area of the SFHA touches your house then you will be required to have flood insurance by your lender and it’s not the discounted rate. If you are in the shaded (black dots) Zone X then this is the old B Zone and and while you are not required to have flood insurance by your lender, I would. And, I would pay attention to any changes in the flood maps as you may be in the next “expansion”. If you’re in the area of blue green dots then your lender will require flood insurance and under Risk Rating 2.0 it will be based upon theses items which you should check that you insurance agent has entered properly for a quote.
Along the beach we see Zone A*. Note that Zone A* is a high flood risk due to surface (rain) water where Zone V* is high flood risk due to surface water AND “additional hazards associated with storm-induced waves”. Think BIG Waves. There are maps for storm surge predictions and next we will look at these.
Storm surge is what I worry about. They say, hide from wind but RUN from water and this is why the county evacuation zones are based in large part upon storm surge predictions. Go the THIS NOAA PAGE to see the storm surge inundation maps for the various Cat 1 to 5 storms and zoom in on our area. These are developed based upon the Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model. Note that these models in the contiguous U.S. have been updated to NAVD88 as a datum BUT show the estimated height of water above the ground. Look at this map. Is your property in an area susceptible to storm surge? If yes then READ THIS ARTICLE on correlating the height of the estimated storm surge for a given storm to the elevation of your property. In Jupiter for Hurricane Dorian they were predicting a 2-4′ storm surge.
Remember that storm surge is the water ABOVE the normal tide caused by a storm. In Northern Palm Beach County the normal high tide is about +0.5 feet NGVD 88 and the so called ‘king’ high tide is about +2.5′ NGVD 88. So, if you live in an area that is prone to storm surge, AND the storm is schedule to hit at high tide, AND it happens to be the time of the year the king tides occur, then you should be worried if the forecast surge is greater than 7′ (the Finished Floor Elevation of your house) – 2.5′ = 4.5′.
Final thoughts on North Palm Beach is that there are many different concerns. The houses east of US-1 and around the lagoon are susceptible to both flooding and storm surge inundation. Communities like Prosperity Harbor and Harbour Isles in particular are in this area. These areas are all in evacuation zone C. REGARDLESS of the maps, if you live on the water or in an area where the maps indicate a flood problem then flood insurance is a cheap safety net. The Village the area east of US-1 as a C evacuation zone.
