Flood Insurance in Will County, Illinois
Tuesday, May 21, 2019On Friday February 15, 2019 the flood insurance maps for Will County, were revised. They were revised to digital maps instead of the old paper maps. This revision may have caused some problems with the flood insurance for your home. Your home might now be in a flood plain. What has happened is people are getting letters from their insurance brokers or lenders saying they now need to purchase flood insurance for their homes. Even If they filed a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) to remove their home from the flood plain. They could have been told that their LOMA was outdated or need to be refiled.
Let me start by showing you how to get a flood plain map for your home. You need go to the FEMA FLOOD MAP SERVICE CENTER. You can find it by using a search engine on your computer. There is no charge for this service, if you are asked for a credit card number leave the site and retype FEMA FLOOD MAP SERVICE CENTER. The top line should say FEMA FLOOD MAP SERVICE CENTER: WELCOME! The box below the welcome is where you can type in your address into the light blue box. You can type in any address in the U.S. and get a FEMA Map. You then must pick the dark blue SEARCH box and press enter. For demonstration purpose lets type in 3230 Executive Dr., Joliet, IL 60431. A new screen will come up and in bold letters it will tell you what part of Will County you live in. for this address it will say WILL COUNTY UNINCORPORATED AREAS. If you live in a city or village it will tell you what city or village you live in. The next line tells you the name of the flood plain map for the area you selected. Please write this down. 17197C0141G effective on 02/15/2019. You will need this later to look for amendments or revisions. Next pick MAP IMAGE with the green arrow. This is easier to use than the DYNAMIC MAP, you need additional programs to use dynamic map. Next pick the MAP IMAGE icon and hit enter. In the lower left-hand corner of the computer screen you can see the map loading and a count down to when you can hit enter, wait till to completes the count down. It might take 2-3 minutes, then pick enter. Three lines will come up, pick the 17197C0141G​​​​​​​.png line. This will bring up the map for your house. By using the icons on the top line, you can blow up parts of the map to make reading it easier. At the bottom of the map there is a legend explaining the different flood zones. The map will show a red balloon with a block dot inside it to locate your house. It is important to understand the information shown on the map. You can find yellow lines that show the boundary lines between unincorporated areas and city or village areas. There is an area shown as WILL COUNTY UNINCORPORATED AREAS with the number 170695. This is FEMA’S code for the unincorporated areas. You can also see two city areas with there codes: CITY OF JOLIET, 170702, AND VILLAGE OF SHOREWOOD, 170712. You will need to know these code numbers later to search for additional documents. The map also shows the Flood Plain Zones. The AE ZONE is shown with a red and blue-green stripped line, this is a SPECIAL HAZARD AREA and has a regulatory floodway. ZONE A is shown by blue-green shading and is a non-determined BASE FLOOD ELEVATION area. ZONE X is known as an area of minimal flood hazard. Please see a more detailed legend at the bottom of the drawing for more detailed descriptions.
When someone questions whether you are in a flood plain you should consult with an Engineer or Land Surveyor. The LOMA Form (which can be used for removing you house from the flood plain) is six pages long. This form asks for elevations at specific locations on the property. The Engineer or Land Surveyor can obtain these elevations and fill out the form. The form needs to be signed by three different people, the Owner, the Flood Plain Manager for the town, village or unincorporated area, and the Engineer or Land Surveyor must sign and seal the form. After the form is signed and exhibits attached I.E. topographic map showing elevations and locations of the house and property, tax parcel map, deed to the property, firmette map. The whole package of documents can be sent to FEMA HEADQUARTERS in WASHINGTON D. C. They will then determine if the house can be removed from the flood plain.
FEMA will issue a five-page report with a cover letter; they will show three pieces of information at the top right-hand corner of the first page. CASE NO. 15-05-677A, COMMUNITY: WILL COUNTY UNINCORPORATED, COMMUNITY NO.: 170695. The second page shows the outcome, what can be removed from the special flood hazard area. This will tell you if you still need flood plain insurance or not. Pages 3, 4, 5, explain the different items that are talked about.
This report is stored at the FEMA Flood Plain Service center online.
On Friday February 15, 2019 the flood insurance maps for Will County, were revised. They were revised to digital maps instead of the old paper maps. This revision may have caused some problems with the flood insurance for your home. Your home might now be in a flood plain. What has happened is people are getting letters from their insurance brokers or lenders saying they now need to purchase flood insurance for their homes. Even If they filed a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) to remove their home from the flood plain. They could have been told that their LOMA was outdated or need to be refiled.
I was able to find a quick way of checking if your LOMA was considered out of date. On February 16, 2019
FEMA filled a document for Unincorporated Areas in Will County, along with Cities and Villages that listed the LOMC (LETTER OF MAP CHANGE) that were still valid. This became known as case number 13-05-4873V. I was able to call the FEMA Map Assistance Center toll free number 877-336-2627 and explain my question. Is my LOMA still in force, I was told by an insurance agent that it was out of date because of the revisions of the Will County mapping change on February 15, 2019. I needed to go through the automatic responses by picking the numbers offered twice and finally got to a real live operator. This woman was very helpful and let me ask my question and I was put on hold and within a minute she came back and told me my LOMA was still valid and walked me through the process of finding it and obtaining a copy.
Because these revalidated LOMC’S will not be reprinted or distributed to primary map users, such as local insurance agents and mortgage lenders, your community will serve as a repository for this information. I would encourage you to disseminate the information reflected by this LOMC-Valid letter through your community so that interested persons, such as property owners, local insurance agents, and mortgage lenders, may benefit from the information.
I will now take you through the process of finding if your LOMA is still valid. I will show three examples of validation documents for Will County. 1. 13-05-4873V-170695 FOR UNINCORPORATED AREAS OF WILL COUNTY, 13-05-4873V-170702 FOR THE CITY OF JOLIET, 13-05-4873V-170712 FOR THE CITY OF SHOREWOOD. The key is to know the first set of numbers 13-05-4873V is the basic validation number and the next number is the community number. The 13-05-4873V-170695 is a 33-page document that lists all valid LOMC. It will list in column form the case no., the date issued, Identifiers (legal description), and FIRM Panel Number. You need your case number to look it up, this is shown on your original LOMA letter from FEMA.
Let’s go through a step by step process: go to the FEMA Flood Map Service Center: Search All Products by typing it into search engine on your computer. The screen that comes up will give you three choses Jurisdiction, Jurisdiction Name and PRODUCT ID. Chose THE PRODUCT ID BOX and it will ask you for your CASE NUMBER. So, you type in 13-05-4873V for the validation listing, but you also must type in your area code for unincorporated will county of 170695. So, the entire number you type in is: 13-058-4873V-170695. If you live in Joliet it would be 13-05-4873V-170702. After you have the number typed in, you pick the dark blue search box and hit enter.
The next screen that comes up will say SEARCH RESULTS FOR PRODUCT 13-05-4873V-170695. Watch out that you didn’t leave out a dash between numbers. There will be one EFFECTIVE PRODUTS (1) IN BOLD PRINT. Chose the folder icon next to it. This will bring up another product to chose LOMC (1). Pick the bold type. This will bring up the next folder under LOMC called REVALIDATIONS (1). Pick the bold type. The next screen that comes up will show that there are 100 different entries under Revalidations. Under that is three boxes, PRODUCT ID, 13-05-4873V-170695, EFFECTIVE DATE 02/16/2019 (the day after the maps were changed) and DOWNLOAD. Pick the green arrow DL box. This will bring up a copy of the 33-page document with an effective date of February 16, 2019. The first two pages explain the contents of the document. The next 31 pages list the valid LOMC’S by CASE NO. That is how you would find if your case number is still valid.
Lee R. Koehler, PLS