New "Advisory Base Flood Elevations" are available on this interactive map from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which the agency says should provide a post-Hurricane Sandy picture of flood risk as residents rebuild.
Residents can input an address and see what the advisory base flood elevation is specific to that location, as FEMA updates its site.
The interactive map aims to equip residents "with more precise information about the flood risk they face, allowing them to make more informed decisions to reduce their personal risk to life and property," announced FEMA in a recent statement.
However, the figures are "advisory" and many towns are processing the advisories and have yet to pass local ordinances adopting them since FEMA released the data Dec. 15.
With a storm surge and continued flooding along waterfront areas after Hurricane Sandy, the advisory base flood elevation hopes to answer the question: "How high is high enough?" to avoid flooded homes.
As many destroyed homes are rebuilt, homeowners may use the base elevation to decide the height of lifts and pillars that property should be built on to avoid flooding issues.
The ABFE site's information aims to prove helpful to residents, landowners and town planners as it has "information to understand where flood risk exists and to decide whether to build to higher elevations based on what has been learned from Sandy," according to FEMA.
More resources are available on FEMA's ABFE page for New Jersey and New York.
