Zillow trick for studying South Branch river property flooding risk

Flooding, fire and wind risk profiles on real estate sites are helpful beyond considering risk as you look for interesting places to live. You can use the mapping tools to identify wetlands, wildlife habitat, and suitability for certain crops and other information that require expert help the when using the otherwise excellent online NRCS WebSoilSurvey and maybe even the County Assessors pages.

West Virginia Zillow data for flood and fire risk is still spotty (and maybe being blocked?), but you can see the same information by going to a property in Maryland or Virginia, choosing the map and then going to the Lot Lines option, choosing Flood, Fire, or Wind. Then scroll into our West Virginia watershed. In many cases you can discern annual risk, 1% risk ("100 year"), or 0.2% risk ("500 year") flood zones. It's good to review this - these zones have changed a lot in the last 20 years.

But as most know, for a specific address, use the FEMA Flood Map Service Center at https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home