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Press Room

FEMA Regulation Updates: Elevation Certificates

By Charlie Gaffney

On August 1, 1968 Congress passed the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 which established the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The program was established to reduce the cost of damages due to floods. Until NFIP, the government's reaction to floods was to provide disaster relief to communities and individuals impacted by flooding. Many times these same properties had been flooded and rebuilt and flooded again. These actions by the government actually encouraged rebuilding in floodplains.

NFIP created a program for communities to establish standards for construction in floodplains. As part of the program, surveys were performed and Base Flood Elevations (BFE) were established. The surveys included both coastal and inland properties that are subject to flooding. The results were published on Federal Rate Insurance Maps (FIRM), which are routinely referenced to determine the need and insurance rates for flood insurance.

Structures in existence prior to the establishment of NFIP are classified as pre-NFIP and those built after the act are post-NFIP. In participating communities the post-NFIP structures were built taking the BFE in consideration to establish the elevation of the lowest floor or structural member of the building and construction conformed to certain standards for building in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). Flood insurance rates vary between a structure being pre-NFIP or post-NFIP. The rates for pre-NFIP structures are higher than post-NFIP.

As part of the program the Elevation Certificate (EC) came into use. Over the years, there have been several FEMA forms and some communities had their own. Today, the October 1, 2000 FEMA EC form or later is needed to change the insurance rate for a pre-NFIP structure to the post-NFIP rate. The EC is typically completed by a surveyor after determining the elevation of the lowest floor or structural member of a building on the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD) which is the datum of the BFE on FIRM maps. If it is determined that the controlling feature of the structure is above BFE, the pre-NFIP building can be insurance rated with the post-NFIP rates. If it is determined that the controlling feature is below BFE, there is no advantage to having the EC performed.

In the preparation of an EC, the surveyor will recover a point of known elevation called a bench mark that was published either on the FIRM map or by a State or Federal Agency. The surveyor will perform a leveling survey to establish the NGVD elevation on the various floors and structural members of the building. The EC identifies the type of construction by choosing one of the various building styles included in the EC instruction manual and lists the elevations of the structure and adjacent ground locations to establish the criteria for the need for flood insurance and to determine if the structure qualifies for a post-NFIP rate. The information on the EC can then be used for a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) or a Letter of Map Revision-Based on Fill (LOMR-F). These forms can be filled out by a property owner or insurance agent as the EC contains all of the technical information acquired by the surveyor and required on the forms. These forms will be the subject of a future article.

For more in-depth information and instructions for any of the items addressed above, go to FEMA.com. The site is user friendly and contains a search engine to assist refining inquiries. Forms and line-by-line instruction manuals are also available at the site. If additional assistance is needed, call Hancock. We can help.