Sources
The report is only as good as the data under it, so we use the same public federal sources the professionals do. Nothing is estimated by us or inferred by a model. Here is each source and what it does for you.
This is FEMA's official digital flood map, and it is where your zone, your Special Flood Hazard Area status, and your base flood elevation come from. The benefit to you: the zone on your report is FEMA's own mapped classification, the same one your lender and insurer use to decide whether coverage is required and what it costs. It is not our guess about your risk, so your realtor or agent can look up the identical map and see the same answer.
hazards.fema.gov · the same data is browsable at the FEMA Map Service Center.
The Census geocoder turns your street address into a precise latitude and longitude and identifies your county. The benefit to you: we look up flood risk at your actual location rather than at the center of your ZIP code, so a home on the dry side of a street is not lumped in with one down by the creek. Better input means the FEMA lookup lands on the right spot.
OpenFEMA publishes every federal disaster declaration, which we filter to recent flood, hurricane, and storm events in your county. The benefit to you: alongside the mapped zone, you see how often your area has actually been declared a federal disaster, which is real recent history rather than a projection. It is context a static zone code alone cannot give you.
All three sources are public and free to consult. What you pay $15 for is the work of pulling them together at your exact address and turning them into one plain-English report you can hand to a lender, an agent, or an insurer.
