New Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) Rule - Effective June 24th (HUD) & September 9th (FEMA)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced that its final rule revising the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard has gone into effect as of Monday, September 9th, 2024. So far, the rule applies only to federally-funded flood hazard mitigation projects funded by FEMA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

HUD established a FFRMS compliance deadline of June 24, 2024, and the new rule applies to all Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) projects funded by HUD (unless they meet an exception). If Environmental Review for your HUD project was completed before June 24, 2024, the design and construction standards are not required to comply with HUD’s new FFRMS rule. 
 

Key changes to the FFRMS by FEMA include: 

• Required consideration of flood mitigation alternatives that use natural features or that incorporate nature-based solutions (NbS). If those solutions are found to be viable, implementation will be required as part of the project. 
• An increase in flood elevation and flood hazard area when assessing future flood risk for mitigation actions subject to the FFRMS (for example building elevation).  
• FEMA estimates that elevating a new building by two feet adds only an average of 1.91% to the total cost to the grant applicant, while complying with the new rule and enhanced, natural disaster resilient building codes saves the owner and taxpayers up to $11 in property damages and losses for every $1 invested in the project. 

The rule will apply to both FEMA’s disaster related programs and its non-disaster related grant programs, and for FEMA-funded projects that involve new construction, substantial improvement, or repairs from natural disasters necessary for addressing substantial damage as defined by regulation. For mitigation projects that involve funding from other federal agencies in addition to FEMA, FEMA will coordinate with these additional federal agencies to determine FFRMS implementation. 
 

The FEMA FFRMS guidance is online at FEMA.gov. A Frequently Asked Questions document (FAQ) is also available.
 

The HUD FFRMS guidance is online at HUD.gov. FAQs for that rule have been posted as well.