Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) for Sacramento, CA
Effects of Restoration of American River Levees
Effective Date: February 18, 2005
Areas Affected: Downtown, East Sacramento, Woodlake, Oak Park, and the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County
Areas Not Affected: South Area (including Meadowview and the Pocket), areas east of Mayhew Channel, areas near Chicken and Strong Ranch Sloughs
LOMR for Sacramento, CA and associated map attachments.
Please note that the files are large and may download slowly. If you experience problems, please contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Map Assistance Center toll-free at
Overview/Background
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has restored levees along the American River that may affect the flood insurance requirement for nearly 50,000 houses in the American River floodplain, which includes downtown Sacramento. Local flood control officials and the USACE studied the flood hazards and submitted data to the FEMA for review. On February 18, 2005, FEMA issued a LOMR showing the revised flood hazard areas.
Restoration of the American River levees removed many houses from the high-risk area, known as the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), the area subject to inundation by the base (1-percent-annual-chance) flood. The Federal flood insurance requirement applies to structures located in high-risk areas that carry a mortgage backed by a federally regulated lender or servicer. Therefore, many property owners will no longer be federally required to purchase flood insurance. These property owners have the option to convert their existing policy to a low-cost Preferred Risk Policy, which costs about half the price of a Standard Flood Insurance Policy while maintaining the same level of protection and keeping the policy's original effective date (so there will not be a lapse in coverage).
While the LOMR removed areas in downtown Sacramento, East Sacramento, Woodlake, Oak Park, and the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County from the high-risk area, the LOMR does not affect other Sacramento areas-including Meadowview, the Pocket, the Chicken and Strong Ranch Soughs floodplain, and the Mayhew Channel floodplain. Therefore, homeowners in these areas must maintain flood insurance if they have a federally backed mortgage.
The South Sacramento Streams floodplain (including Meadowview and the Pocket) has three major sources of flood risk: the American River, the Sacramento River, and the South Sacramento Streams that travel through local flood control channels. Local officials and the USACE are working to remove these areas from the high-risk area, and plan to submit data for a LOMR request in spring 2006.
Areas east of the Mayhew Channel are still located in a high-risk area. Once improvements to the Mayhew Levee are complete, local officials will submit data to FEMA for review. FEMA expects to receive the data in early 2007.
Currently, most property near Chicken and Strong Ranch Sloughs is located in Zone A99, a high-risk area that will ultimately be protected from a flood-control system that is under construction. Homeowners receive reduced flood insurance premiums when located in Zone A99. In the near future, some areas near the Sloughs (possibly including areas not currently located in a high-risk area) will be designated Zone AE, a higher-risk flood zone. While flood insurance is more costly in Zone AE, FEMA has Grandfather Rules that allow property owners, who maintain continuous flood insurance coverage, to continue to buy flood insurance that is cost-rated for the flood zone used when the flood insurance policy was originally purchased. Thus, property owners who do not have a lapse in their flood insurance coverage will not see a dramatic increase to their flood insurance premium.
For more information on the restoration of the American River levee system, please visit Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.
For more information on the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or flood insurance, please visit FloodSmart.gov. For answers to pertinent questions regarding the NFIP, please select one of the topics below. If you have additional questions about how you may be affected by a flood map change, please contact a map specialist toll-free at
Additional information for Write Your Own (WYO) companies, insurance regulators or agents, and lenders is available on the NFIP Web site.
How to Obtain a Copy of the LOMR and Map Attachments
Your local Community Map Repository (CMR) has copies of the LOMR and map attachments that you may view. The CMR for the City of Sacramento is located at:
Engineering Services Division
1395 35th Avenue
Sacramento, California 95822
The CMR for Sacramento County is located at:
827 Seventh Street Room 301
Sacramento, California 95814
You also may order copies of the LOMR and Map attachments through the
LOMC Clearinghouse
6730 Santa Barbara Court
Elkridge, MD 21075
Please note that the standard Flood Insurance Study backup data fees apply.
Last Modified: Friday, 19-Jun-2009 14:10:50 EDT