General Mapping Disclaimer

The information contained in the Bayou Information Center maps is only for general educational purposes about the region’s watersheds and is intended to let users discover relationships between mostly publicly mapped information not otherwise easily seen or collected into one location.

The information has been collected from public sources and may not be the most current or the most accurate available. Users of the maps should refer to original material from original sources for any purposes other than general education.

The Bayou Preservation Association assumes no liability in sharing this public information

Flood Insurance Rate Maps

The FIRM maps shown on this site are those distributed electronically by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (usually called FEMA). The information found on these maps is created to generally describe where there might or might not be a risk of flooding along a region’s principal streams, bayous and rivers. The flood hazard zones shown on the FIRM maps are used to regulate certain aspects of land development and to set flood insurance rates.

The main flood hazard zone shown on the maps is an approximation of the limits of a theoretical 100 year flood event (a flood that has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year). Many real-world conditions will make actual flood water elevations and extents vary to some degree from that shown on the maps. The maps should serve the community to recognize generally where a flood hazard potential exists. If your property is in or even near a flood hazard zone, you should seek to know more about the stream nearest to you, the local topography and drainage patterns, and the actual elevation of your house to determine the actual risk of flooding. Many properties not even near a mapped flood hazard zone can flood due to other reasons, such as street flooding or overland flows, so knowledge of specific local conditions is necessary for any good risk assessment.

The FIRM maps shown on this site should only be used for general orientation purposes. FIRM maps are only periodically revised and re-issued; for up-to-date information you must contact your officially designated Floodplain Administrator, who is usually appointed by the City if you live in an incorporated area, or the County if you live in an un-incorporated area. The Floodplain Administrator will have paper copies of the maps and copies of "Letters of Map Revision" that record approved partial changes to the map between full map revisions.

Proceed to the Bayou Information Center Internet Mapping Application