With the new 2017 DFIRM map panels are not issued to individual National Flood Insurance Program - NFIP communities but the one seamless countywide map is apportioned based on area covered without consideration of corporate boundaries. The exception is along the King County border were portions of the cities of Pacific and Auburn are not shown in Pierce County but will be mapped in the King County countywide DFIRM as the majority of those cities lay in King County. The map panel starts with a new countywide identifier of “53053C” plus the four digit panel locator and the latest edited suffix, currently “E”. Each NFIP community has a unique number that is necessary to be shown on Elevation Certificates and for writing a flood insurance policy (e.g. Unincorporated Pierce County is 530138) in the past this community number was on the map panel issued to that community. Care must be taken to ensure the property community is identified on the appropriate documents. This number can be found on FEMA website: https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-status-book">https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program-community-status-book

The FEMA map panels are derived from the USGS 7.5 Minute Quad grid. A FEMA 1"=2000' map covers the exact area at a 7.5 Minute Quadrangle. FEMA publishes maps at three scales, 1"=2000', 1"=1000' and 1"=500'. The map scale can be determined by the panel number of the map. The map numbering on a 1"=2000' series map is divisible by 25 (e.g. 0150, 0650). The 1"=2000' maps are quartered (by aliquot parts) to become the 1"=1000' map, the map numbering are divisible by 5 (e.g. 0140, 630). The 1"=1000' are sub-divided again to create the 1"=500' scale maps used in more populated areas (e.g.0137, 0626).