St. Louis Region
The confluence sets the county's flood limits
St. Charles County wraps the Missouri-Mississippi confluence, so river-bottom areas have real flood history and flood-zone status is a key buying question.
St. Charles County sits at and around the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and its river-bottom areas, around Portage des Sioux, West Alton, and the floodplain edges of the growing cities, have a real flood history. Near the rivers a FEMA flood-zone designation is the first question, affecting flood-insurance expectations and lender requirements. The FEMA Flood Map Service Center is the official place to check a specific address. The practical move is to look up a parcel’s flood-zone status early when buying near the rivers, rather than judging by a single dry year.
References
Where this fits: this note belongs to St. Charles County. See every local note for the county on its page.