2021/08/05 - OTHER - (NA) - LOMA

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The NFIP offers two types of flood insurance policies to property owners: the low-cost Preferred Risk Policy (PRP) and the Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP). The PRP is available for 1- to 4-family residential structures located outside the SFHA with little or no loss history. The PRP is available for townhouse/rowhouse-type structures, but is not available for other types of condominium units. The SFIP is available for all other structures. Additional information on the PRP and how a property owner can quality for this type of policy may be obtained by calling the Flood Insurance Information Hotline, toll free, at 1-800-427-4661. Before making a final decision about flood insurance coverage, FEMA strongly encourages property owners to discuss their individual flood risk situations and insurance needs with an insurance agent or company. FEMA has established "Grandfather" rules to benefit flood insurance policyholders who have maintained continuous coverage. Property owners may wish to note also that, if they live outside but on the fringe of the SFHA shown on an effective NFIP map and the map is revised to expand the SFHA to include their structure(s), their flood insurance policy rates will not increase as long as the coverage for the affected structure(s) has been continuous. Property owners would continue to receive the lower insurance policy rates. LOMAs are based on minimum criteria established by the NFIP. State, county, and community officials, based on knowledge of local conditions and in the interest of safety, may set higher standards for construction in the SFHA. If a State, county, or community has adopted more restrictive and comprehensive floodplain management criteria, these criteria take precedence over the minimum Federal criteria. In accordance with regulations adopted by the community when it made application to join the NFIP, letters issued to amend an NFIP map must be attached to the community's official record copy of the map. That map is available for public inspection at the community's official map repository. Therefore,FEMA sends copies of all such letters to the affected community's official map repository. When a restudy is undertaken, or when a sufficient number of revisions or amendments occur on particular map panels, FEMA initiates the printing and distribution process for the affected panels. FEMA notifies community officials in writing when affected map panels are being physically revised and distributed. In such cases, FEMA attempts to reflect the results of the LOMA on the new map panel. If the results of particular LOMAs cannot be reflected on the new map panel because of scale limitations, FEMA notifies the community in writing and revalidates the LOMAs in that letter. LOMAs revalidated in this way usually will become effective 1 day after the effective date of the revised map.