Is my property in a Flood Zone

Every property is in a flood zone, but not all properties are in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). The SFHA’s are defined as the areas that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.  This does not mean it can only happen once per year! An area can experience a 1% flood several times or not at all during the year.  FEMA refers to the 1% chance flood as the base flood or 100-year flood. This means FEMA has designated these areas as having a higher risk of flooding or flood-related hazard. These are designated as Zone A, Zone AO, Zone AE and Zone AH in Mohave County on the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM). 

An important term within SFHA is the Base Flood Elevation or BFE. The BFE is the “elevation to which floodwater is expected to rise during the base flood”. Zone AO and Zone AH may be designated as one, two or three feet above the natural ground.      
The State of Arizona requires an additional foot above the BFE. This means that any structure built within the SFHA should be elevated a minimum of one foot above the BFE. This elevation is called the Regulatory Flood Elevation (RFE).