Oldsmar flooding? (Tampa: city hall, insurance, house)

[tjax1000]

Hi, looking at a house near the new state park near the south end of Shore Drive. Did some research, and it is an AE flood zone, with a BFE of 9 ft. Meaning, it is only 9 feet above the flood plain. The home is a block or two inland.

For those long time residents of Oldsmar, do you ever recall this area having a problem with flooding? the AE status of course requires flood insurance which is one thing.... but the other thing is realistically how prone to flooding the house actually is. I'm curious if this area has ever been hit with a tropical system and if so, what might have been.

If 40 days of rain would flood the place, that is one thing. If a couple solid days would flood it, that is a whole different story....

Thanks in advance

[FFZS]

Originally Posted by tjax1000

Hi, looking at a house near the new state park near the south end of Shore Drive. Did some research, and it is an AE flood zone, with a BFE of 9 ft. Meaning, it is only 9 feet above the flood plain. The home is a block or two inland.

For those long time residents of Oldsmar, do you ever recall this area having a problem with flooding? the AE status of course requires flood insurance which is one thing.... but the other thing is realistically how prone to flooding the house actually is. I'm curious if this area has ever been hit with a tropical system and if so, what might have been.

If 40 days of rain would flood the place, that is one thing. If a couple solid days would flood it, that is a whole different story....

Thanks in advance

BFE 9 means that the area will flood at an elevation of 9 feet above mean sea level. depending on the elevations of the property determines the statical probability of the house flooding. Having a house at 11 feet has less of a chance flooding than a house at the elevation of 7 for this area. Make sure you get an elevation certificate to get a correct rating for the flood insurance.

[tjax1000]

Thanks for the info. Any idea on historically what happens to the bay when a storm comes in? Just curious what type of surge can happen in this area... trying to gauge whether BFE 9 in a bayfront area is really bad news, or just a statistical chance of flooding....

Thanks

[clevelandguy]

The Tampa Bay area hasn't had a direct hit from a hurricane since 1921.
If...And this is a big IF... a hurricane should hit Tampa Bay, Oldsmar would be one of the hardest hit (flooded) areas.

[tjax1000]

FYI, I think this is the correct definition of BFE...

Base Flood Elevation (BFE): The elevation of the flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in a given year. Also known as the 1 percent annual chance flood or the 100 year flood.

So I'm not sure it has anything to do with sea level, per se. You could be at 1000 feet above sea level, but 5 feet from a lake that is prone to overfilling in heavy rain.... so you might only be at BFE + 1.

Thanks for pointing me to the 1921 hurricane. I did some research, and apparently it brought a storm surge of 10-12 feet to Tampa Bay. I found a post-Katrina article looking at the Tampa Bay area that said in the worst case, we could see a 20 foot surge in the bay. In that case they say most of Pinellas, South Tampa, downtown Tampa, etc. would all be under water. Not really a pleasant thought.

I guess the only thing going for us is the fact that at least in terms of recent recorded history, hits to this area have been very rare.

[Annie of Oldsmar]

I live very close to that area, my house requires flood insurance and from what I have heard here there has not been any problems in the last years they have been here.
Our house has a BFE 11, so we did get the flood insurance.
With this area which is mostly Category II, when there is a hurricane, they let you know according to the cat when you have to leave. So far, it has not been a problem for us.
If the house you are looking at is on stilts, you just have to take your automobiles out of the area.
The area you are looking at is a nice area, however I don't know more specifics about it.
Please PM me if you have any more specific questions and think I can asnwer .

[tilli]

Of course there have been no recent flooding issues. This area hasn't taken a direct hit by a serious storm in a long time, and we are in a rainfall deficit now - all the lakes and rivers are unusually low. However, that doesn't mean that Oldsmar is safe from flooding. Look at Oldsmar on a map. Note it's position at the top of Old Tampa Bay, note it's low elevation. If a major storm was to come up the bay, Oldsmar would be inundated. An AE flood zone is nothing to sneeze at.

[Keeper]

IIRC Shore Dr was flooded a couple of years ago when we had several hurricanes dump a lot of rain in a short period. A friend of mine lived a block off of Shore Dr and had no water damage in her house but she couldn't leave due to the street flooding. You could probably go to City Hall and ask them if they have any records of the flooding. Honestly, there are homes that were built back in the 60s and they are still there, right on the beach or a canal

It really boils down to if you can afford or get HOI for the property