Protecting your home and community

Stay Dry: Using Google Earth to View FEMA Flood Information

View FEMA Flood Hazard Information Using Google Earth

http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1629-20490-9036/stay_dry_kmz_user_guide.pdfThe “Stay Dry” kmz file allows you to use Google Earth™ to view basic flood hazard  information from FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) using an address or  other location information. You can view flood hazard zones and boundaries, and Flood  Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) numbers and boundaries where available.  FEMA publishes new FIRMs in the form of paper maps, digital map images, and digital  geospatial flood hazard data like those in the NFHL.

 

When used appropriately, these  representations are equivalent to one another and represent official FEMA designations  of special flood hazard areas, base flood elevations, insurance risk zones, and other  regulatory information. If you plan to use the mapped flood information displayed in  Google Earth for official purposes, please ensure that imagery and other map  information displayed with the flood data meet FEMA’s standards for map accuracy.

 

Before You Start

 

Google Earth ImageYou must have the Google Earth viewer software installed on your computer. The  starting point for obtaining the software is http://earth.google.com/. Information about  the system requirements needed for your computer to run the software is available  through http://earth.google.com/support/. A user guide is available at  http://earth.google.com/userguide/.

 

Your computer must have a high-speed internet  connection. Download the “Stay Dry” kmz file to your computer to allow the Google  Earth viewer to access NFHL data. It is available through  https://hazards.fema.gov/femaportal/wps/portal/NFHLWMSkmzdownload.

 

Download  the file to your computer using the instructions provided on the web page. For best  performance please delete or turn off previous versions of the “Stay Dry” or “FEMA  NFHL” applications that you have loaded in Google Earth.

 

 

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