Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003, is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from, and mitigating disasters. FEMA can trace its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the century that followed, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters. As it has for more than 20 years, FEMA's mission remains to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared."

FEMA provides ESRI ArcWeb Services users with flood hazard and risk zone maps. This data, currently available for approximately 1,200 counties across the United States, is intended for proximity searches and queries of flood risk zones in the United States. The flood-hazard maps provided by FEMA should not be considered legal documents to be used when making a single-site flood-hazard determination. The maps should be considered advisory tools for general hazard awareness and education.

Available FEMA Services

• U.S. Flood Hazard Areas Spatial Query FEMA
• U.S. Flood Risk Zone Map FEMA