FEMA Floodplain Management

FEMA Related Property Inquiries

The City of Marathon encourages inquiries from lenders, real estate representatives, insurance agents, and property owners to request flood information before buying or selling land in the county. All of the City of Marathon is identified as a coastal floodplain and may be subject to flooding.

FEMA Regulations

The City of Marathon participates in the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  In compliance with the NFIP, the City has adopted a Floodplain Management Ordinance which regulates construction of buildings within the adopted floodplain (the entirety of the City).  A link to the City’s Floodplain Ordinance is provided here. (Appendix A, Land Development Regulations, Chapter 107, Article 12, “Floodplain Management.”

FEMA Community Inspection Program

The City of Marathon has participated in the FEMA NFIP Community Inspection Pilot Program which “sunseted” in July of 2013.  However, the concept of the Community Inspection Program remains viable as a tool for the real estate market to determine the legality of structural components of buildings enclosed below the Base Flood Elevation (BFE).  The City continues the program on a volunteer basis.  The FEMA NFIP Community Inspection Application Form can be downloaded below.

FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM)

FEMA provides paper FIRM maps at varying scales.  They can be difficult to read if they are not “scaled up” to a more viewable scale.  The City utilizes Geographic Information System (GIS) files to visualize the FIRM maps at a better scale.  The attached map book is provided as an Adobe PDF document and is down loadable below.  (This is a large file and will take time to download)  A free version of Adobe Reader is available here.   

Individual maps pages may be scaled to read them better.  Additional FEMA map information is also available on their site and here.