National Flood Insurance Program Information

FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program Information

In 1968, Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to help provide a means for property owners to financially protect themselves. The NFIP offers flood insurance to homeowners, renters, and business owners if their community participates in the NFIP. Participating communities agree to adopt and enforce ordinances that meet or exceed FEMA requirements to reduce the risk of flooding.

More information can be found via FEMA's website at: https://www.floodsmart.gov/get-flood-insurance

Some important highlights on flood insurance:

  • Homeowners insurance excludes flood damage.
  • NFIP (Flood Insurance backed by FEMA) is available for any property within the City of Sioux Falls.
  • Flood insurance needs to be issued and in effective at least 30 days before an event occurs (30 day waiting period).
  • Flood insurance is issued based on structural and contents coverage. Structural covers the costs to rebuild/repair items such as walls while contents helps pay to repair or replace belongings such as clothing, furniture, and electronics.
  • Floodplain rates are based on Risk Rating 2.0 approach. See more information on this process via FEMA's pricing approach page: https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance/risk-rating
  • Find a flood insurance provider using Floodsmart.gov at: https://www.floodsmart.gov/flood-insurance-provider
  • As of October 1, 2023 the City of Sioux Falls is a class 7 Community Rating System community, which should provide up to a 15% discount on most flood insurance policies. Please note this discounted is applied at the Federal level and likely wont show up as discount on any bills or invoices.

     

Is Floodplain Insurance Being Required For Your Property?

  • Any requirement to hold floodplain insurance is done by the lending institution. 
  • A property may be able to use a Elevation Certificate (EC) to obtain a Letter Of Map Amendment (LOMA) to show the lender that FEMA believes that structure is reasonably safe from flooding. City staff can help with questions on this process, email staff at Floodplain@SiouxFalls.gov. Here are some important notes about LOMA's:
    • LOMA's are not guaranteed to always be active on a property. 
    • Changes to the floodplain may cause LOMA's to not be renewed when new floodplain maps become effective (a process call revalidation). 
      • These changes could be due to a number of reasons but most often are a result of increasing Base Flood Elevations (BFE) that require new EC's to be completed and submitted to FEMA. 

 

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