Yes. Flooding can happen anywhere, and even areas outside of high-risk zones experience flood damage every year. More than 25% of all flood insurance claims come from properties located in moderate- or low-risk areas. Standard homeowners’ insurance does not cover flood damage, so flood insurance provides important protection regardless of where you live.

You can purchase flood insurance through your local insurance agent or visit FloodSmart.gov for more information.

Flood risk data and maps are updated as new information becomes available, including rainfall studies, land use data, and improvements to drainage infrastructure. All updates occur in coordination with FEMA. MAAPnext represents the most comprehensive update since 2007 and includes data from NOAA’s 2018 Atlas 14 rainfall study, 2018 LiDAR elevation data, and the latest flood modeling technology. Once new FEMA maps are finalized, they become the official Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) used for insurance and permitting purposes.

Flooding in Harris County can occur from several sources:

• Riverine flooding is caused when rainfall runoff totals exceed the carry capacity of our bayous and creeks flood adjacent lands.
• Community flooding can occur when rainfall intensity surpasses the ability of the local drainage infrastructure, such as storm sewer or roadside ditch.
• Coastal flooding is caused by high tides driven by tropical storms or hurricanes.

Understanding these types of flooding helps residents recognize that flood risk isn’t limited to those living near major waterways - it can happen anywhere it rains.

The MAAPnext Navigator allows you to view and explore draft flood risk information for addresses in Harris County.

To get started, enter an address in the search bar on the homepage or the “Understand Your Flood Risk” page. The tool displays draft flood risk information to help you better understand flood risk in your area.

The information shown in the Navigator is for informational and educational purposes only. Draft maps and data are not final, cannot be used for insurance or regulatory decisions, and are not open for public comment at this time.

Additional features and resources—including downloadable materials—will be made available as FEMA advances through its official map review and release process.

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Hurricane Harvey caused historic flooding across many parts of Harris County, but it was not the worst flooding event for every neighborhood, watershed, or property. Flooding in Harris County varies based on where rain falls, how intense the rainfall is, how long it lasts, local ground conditions, bayou and channel capacity, storm surge in coastal areas, and the capacity of neighborhood drainage systems.

MAAPnext is not based on Hurricane Harvey or any other single storm. Instead, it uses updated rainfall data, historical storm information, terrain data, land use data, and hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to estimate flood risk across a range of storm probabilities. This allows the maps and flood risk products to reflect more than one past event.

It is also important to remember that the FEMA 1-percent annual chance floodplain does not represent Hurricane Harvey or any other specific historic storm. It represents an area with a 1-percent chance of flooding in any given year, based on modeled conditions. A property may have flooded during Harvey and still be outside a mapped high-risk flood zone, or it may be in a mapped high-risk flood zone even if it did not flood during Harvey. Both situations can occur because mapped flood risk is based on modeled probabilities, not only on what happened during one storm.