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​Determine Your Flood Risk

Whether you’re a homeowner, homebuyer, tenant, insurance provider, or floodplain manager, it’s important to know and anticipate your current and future flood risk status.

To aid your research, Penn State University, FEMA, and the commonwealth created the Pennsylvania Flood Risk Tool to help you make informed decisions about flood risk. This step-by-step interactive process is designed to help you understand your flood risk and what your next steps should be based on your personalized results.

If you live in a community where flood maps are being updated, determining your flood risk is an important task. Updates to the maps, which are occurring throughout the state, can affect your flood insurance. Learn more below.

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​How do flood map updates affect insurance?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) releases the digital flood insurance maps (DFIRMs) on a community-by-community basis.

​How do I change my flood zone designation?

​Letters of Map Amendment (LOMAs) and Letters of Map Revision (LOMR) enable property owners to request changes or updates to their property’s flood risk status to FEMA.

​What are the recommended next steps to take action?

Next steps are to determine your insurance coverage and reduce your risk.

​What should I know about homeowners flood insurance reform?

In 2004, Congress passed the Homeowners Flood Insurance Reform Act, which reformed the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and provided a means for property owners to protect themselves financially from flood events.