San Jose CA Floodings & flood insurance in San Jose CA.

To understand if your property is at risk of flooding.

First, you have to understand all waterways and bodies of water are subject to floods in and around San Jose.

Flooding in San Jose is caused is when the volume of water exceeds the capacity of the rivers, streams, brooks, canals, lakes, and spillways.

With 180 miles, There are many flood maps in San Jose, CA the fourth-largest city in the land area also has the potential of tidal waters pushing inland by coastal storms along the Bay area.

Flooding will occur in localized low spots, even if the area is not close to a body of water.

San Jose CA can be prone to flash floods & mudslides.

Flood Map San Jose CA

FEMA, which stands for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is the government branch charged with keeping us safe.

Since 1973 FEMA has taken on the massive mandate to map all the flooding risks across the country. These are Called FIRM or Flood Insurance risk maps.

According to FEMA flood maps done for San Jose CA, Palo Alto Ca, Milpitas CA, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara are considered one of the most at-risk areas to see flooding.

Flood Insurance San Jose CA

There will be new maps for San Clara County CA, as well as San Jose CA coming in the next few years. 

San Jose CA has 6,969 properties in the high-risk flood zone.

FEMA flood maps that will take effect have the potential to send the insurance cost for these properties up.

The good news is that you have a flood nerd on your side. 

Flooding in San Jose CA and 100-year flood map

FEMA came up with this term, the 100-year flood zone, and it is very confusing.

Using the 100-year flood risk as a guide, FEMA mapped San Jose CA into high risk, moderate-risk, and low-risk flood zone.

Several areas within San Jose CA city limits and Santa Clara County are considered high-risk flood zones or Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA). This means that structures in these areas (flood zone maps) have a one-in-four chance of flooding at least once during a thirty-year period. 

Please note that moderate or low-risk flood zones do not mean that there is no risk.

It just simply means that your property might not be required to purchase a flood policy by their lender. It doesn’t mean that the property won’t flood.

If your property is within the high-risk San Jose CA flood zone map and you have a mortgage, your lender will require you to purchase a flood insurance policy.

Our Government wants us all to have flood insurance coverage, and in light of recent flooding events, I would agree with them.

Anywhere it can rain, it can flood. This is even more critical in areas where there is minimal perception.

All you would need is a small shift in weather patterns to get more water than has hit the region in a long time.

90% of all the natural disasters in the United States involve flooding.

Frequently the areas that are in low or moderate risk areas are often affected.

Oftentimes, these properties do not have flood insurance thinking they are safe from flooding because they are not in the high-risk flood zone.

Remember, the High-risk flood maps are for the Catastrophic event of flooding, meaning large-scale flood.

Sadly FEMA flood maps didn’t calculate or consider smaller-scale floods.

Why didn’t FEMA map the potential of smaller floods?

We would have to go back and look at the mandate, which was to help the country prepare for and offset some of the disaster relief funds needed in the significant flooding event.

They were only looking at and mapping vast areas that could flood.

We are all at risk for smaller-scale floods

If your property is in a low or moderate-risk flood map, you could be in the (50-year or 10-year) flood zone and not even know it.

The good news here is that you can buy a flood policy for any zone your structure is in.