Does the 100-Year-Flood Map mean anything?

100-year-flood means a 1% chance of a flood occurring in any given year. So, the chance of flooding during the lifetime of a 30-year mortgage is 26%, which is more than one in four.

To make the matter worse, in reality, we have seen these 100-year or 500-year floods occurring again in the space of several years. The devastating floods in Ellicott City, MD, in 2016 and then again in 2018 show that the floods do not know the schedule.

(The photo below is a snapshot from the Baltimore Sun video.)

So, why are the houses keep going up in the low-lying lands in Sussex County? Well, the short answer is that the County keeps approving them. But do people buy those homes in precarious lands at a hefty price?

• Maybe because FEMA will rescue them anyway if they get flooded?
• Maybe because the buyers are not aware that Sussex County is the lowest-lying county in the U.S.?
• Or, maybe they do not think the calamities will only strike others?

The problem is these new homes are built on freeboards or filled lands to elevate their homes, and that changes the topography of the area and puts the neighboring existing homes at higher flood risks.

Of course, there are many existing neighborhoods that already flood even on sunny days, just by the high tides.