This article by Charles Spencer, the Science Editor at the Kansas City Examiner, provides a solid overview about online access to flood insurance maps.

One source of information is the FEMA website, where you can view what are called Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs. These maps are used as the basis for issuing federal flood insurance and often for local floodplain zoning. As of October 1, 2009 they are available only in digital format. You retrieve maps by clicking on the Find-a-FIRM button, then entering a street address. The name of the map covering the desired area appears, and clicking on the View icon downloads the map.

But although these maps are full of information, the process of viewing it is not all that user-friendly.

A second article is available listing databases that contain flood information for Missouri and Kansas.

Source: Kansas City Examiner, Washington Examiner

Hat Tip: All Points Blog

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 and is filed under Databases, Directories, and Guides, Geographic, Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.