The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) is a geospatial database that contains current effective flood hazard data. FEMA provides the flood hazard data to support the National Flood Insurance Program. You can use the information to better understand your level of flood risk and type of flooding.The NFHL is made from effective flood maps and Letters of Map Change (LOMC) delivered to communities. NFHL digital data covers over 90 percent of the U.S. population. New and revised data is being added continuously. If you need information for areas not covered by the NFHL data, there may be other FEMA products which provide coverage for those areas.In the NFHL Viewer, you can use the address search or map navigation to locate an area of interest and the NFHL Print Tool to download and print a full Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) or FIRMette (a smaller, printable version of a FIRM) where modernized data exists. Technical GIS users can also utilize a series of dedicated GIS web services that allow the NFHL database to be incorporated into websites and GIS applications. For more information on available services, go to the NFHL GIS Services User Guide.You can also use the address search on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center (MSC) to view the NFHL data or download a FIRMette. Using the “Search All Products” on the MSC, you can download the NFHL data for a County or State in a GIS file format. This data can be used in most GIS applications to perform spatial analyses and for integration into custom maps and reports. To do so, you will need GIS or mapping software that can read data in shapefile format.FEMA also offers a download of a KMZ (keyhole markup file zipped) file, which overlays the data in Google Earth™. For more information on using the data in Google Earth™, please see Using the National Flood Hazard Layer Web Map Service (WMS) in Google Earth™.

In the NFHL Viewer, you can use the address search or map navigation to locate an area of interest and the NFHL Print Tool to download and print a full Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) or FIRMette (a smaller, printable version of a FIRM) where NFHL data exists. Technical GIS users can also utilize a series of dedicated GIS web services that allow the NFHL database to be incorporated into websites and GIS applications. For more information on available services, go to the NFHL GIS Services User Guide.You can also use the address search on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center (MSC) to view the NFHL data or download a FIRMette. Using the “Search All Products” on the MSC, you can download the NFHL data for a County or State in a GIS file format. This data can be used in most GIS applications to perform spatial analyses and for integration into custom maps and reports. To do so, you will need GIS or mapping software that can read data in shapefile format.FEMA also offers a download of a KMZ (keyhole markup file zipped) file, which overlays the data in Google Earth™. For more information on using the data in Google Earth™, please see Using the National Flood Hazard Layer Web Map Service (WMS) in Google Earth™.