The Harris County Flood Control District is planning to submit preliminary flood plain maps to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in late 2021, an almost $30 million effort that began in January 2019.
FEMA will process the draft map and issue the Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map in summer 2022, said Brian Edmondson, project manager for HCFCD's Modeling, Assessment and Awareness Project, or MAAPnext. The new rates could take effect in 2023 or 2024, he said.
"This will be in a very important tool for homeowners, renters, communities in our area that they will be able to use to understand what the risk is that they face in their area—whether they're making decision to buy flood insurance [or] whether they're making a decision to move or buy a property," he said. "Everyone will have these results available to use ... any time they need to make a decision related to flood risk living in Harris County."
The county’s flood plain map has not been completely remapped since 2001, although it has been updated throughout the years after major storm events, Edmondson said. He said the flood control district decided to remap the county's flood plain map in part because officials noticed many flood insurance claims placed after major storm events were coming from outside the current boundaries of the flood plain map.
