Updated FEMA flood maps expand high-risk area in Ithaca; county and insurers outline options for homeowners

City and county staff and a local insurance agent briefed residents on new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps and insurance options, telling attendees that the map updates will expand high-risk designations and could require some homeowners with federally backed mortgages to buy flood insurance.

"Just in the city alone, we had 600 additional properties mapped into the special flood hazard area," said Lisa Nicholas during the session, summarizing the scale of the change for City of Ithaca residents. Sam Quinn Jacobs, a city planner, walked through how to read FEMA’s Flood Insurance Rate Maps and where property owners can access them online.

The new maps — speakers said they became effective June 18 — use more detailed inputs (including LIDAR and building elevation data) and adopt FEMA’s Risk Rating 2.0 approach, which calculates premiums at a more granular, property-specific level. Abigail O'Connor, environmental planner at the Tompkins County Department of Planning and Sustainability, described a county web page of resources, videos and forms intended to help residents, real estate agents and insurers navigate the change.

Why it matters: Properties newly mapped into…