Because Miami-Dade County is located in a unique geographical area, it is particularly susceptible to flooding from major rain events and storm surge. The County is surrounded by major water bodies such as the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, and many rivers, lakes and canals.

Miami-Dade County lies close to sea level and its underground water supply is just below the ground surface. Therefore, major rain events sometimes leave rainwater nowhere to drain, causing occasional flooding in some areas of the County.

New Flood Zone Maps are now available for viewing. The Federal Emergency Mangement Agency (FEMA) has completed a major effort to develop detailed digital flood hazard maps that reflect current flood risks for Miami-Dade County. The new Flood Zone Maps replace existing maps using updated and more detailed information.

The new maps also referred to as Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) illustrate flood hazards throughout the county and are used when determining flood insurance policy rates. Residents and businesses can view the maps to better understand their potential flood risk to help identify steps they may need to take to protect against property damage and loss.

To find out if your home lies in an area susceptible to flooding, known as Special Flood Hazard Areas or flood zones, you can:

• View the Flood Zone Maps using Miami-Dade County's interactive web tool. Once you navigate to this web tool, please enter your address to view the map for your area. For confirmation of your property's official flood zone designation, contact DERM at 305-372-6466 or call your insurance agent.

You can also view the digital maps through FEMA's website. Please note that paper maps will be phased out under FEMA's Map Modernization Program. There are several options to view the digital maps. The choice will depend on your computer resources and information needs. The options are:

• Visit the FEMA Map Service Center and download the FIRMette Desktop Viewer. This application supports the maps in image format (.tiff or .png). This version supports FIRMette creation for both two-color and black and white maps. This application is to be used with a FEMA-DFIRM CD that can be ordered from the FEMA Map Service Center.
• Use the new FEMA MapViewer Application. This desktop application support the maps in ESRI shapefile format.
  • First, download the MapViewer application and follow the instructions for installation.
  • Download the complete DFIRM database from Miami-Dade County's ftp site.
  • Open MapViewer and point the application to the directory in your computer where you saved the DFIRM database.

You can also use the Mapping Information Platform from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer Web Map Service (WMS). You can use either the online Map Viewer or use Google Earth, which is a popular Internet application to view maps.
This website provides zipped Keyhole Markup Language (.kmz) files through which users can view map overlays created from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer on Google Earth images.

For more information on flood protection and related topics at the national level, please visit FEMA.

Read more information on the new Miami-Dade County flood zone maps, or call DERM at 305-372-6466.

• View the flood zone brochure .