FEMA flood zone boundaries for St. Pete and the rest of Pinellas County, drawn on the live map above. Check any address, click a zone for its risk level and base flood elevation, and read on for what actually happened to each neighborhood in Helene and Milton.
How to check a flood zone in Pinellas County
Four steps, ten minutes, and you will know more about the property than most listing agents do. Do them in order — the last one is the one that sets your premium.
- 1
Type the address into the map above
It drops a pin, zooms to street level, and colors every FEMA zone around it. Amber is AE, red is VE, light green is the 0.2% (X500) band, and no color at all is unshaded Zone X. Click any colored area for the zone name, the risk level, and the base flood elevation where FEMA has set one.
- 2
Confirm it on the Pinellas County Flood Map Service Center
floodmaps.pinellas.gov is the county's own lookup. It shows the effective FEMA map, the preliminary map where one is in progress, and the evacuation zone — which is a different thing (more on that below). If our map and the county disagree, the county wins.
- 3
Pull the official panel from FEMA
msc.fema.gov is the Flood Map Service Center. Search the address and you get the FIRM panel, the effective date, and any Letters of Map Amendment on file. Lenders and insurers work from this, so this is the version that matters at closing.
- 4
Ask the seller for the Elevation Certificate
The zone tells you whether insurance is required. The Elevation Certificate tells you what it costs. It records how high the finished floor sits relative to the base flood elevation, and a home a couple of feet above BFE in Zone AE can price like a Zone X home. If there isn't one, a surveyor can produce one for a few hundred dollars — worth every penny before you make an offer, not after.
St. Pete neighborhoods by flood zone — and what Helene did to each
After the 2024 hurricanes, flood zone is the first question from every buyer we talk to. This is the honest version for 22 St. Petersburg neighborhoods: the FEMA zone, the average elevation, and how each came through Helene and Milton in 2024.
High and dry — Zone X across the neighborhood
The Disston Ridge and the plateau north of downtown. No mandatory flood insurance, and these are the neighborhoods that stayed dry in Helene.
| Neighborhood | Elevation | FEMA zone | Helene & Milton (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disston Heights | ~61 ft | X | Disston Heights came through both Helene and Milton significantly better than nearly any other St. Pete neighborhood. |
| Allendale Terrace | ~45 ft | X | Allendale came through Hurricane Helene (Sept 26, 2024) and Hurricane Milton (Oct 9, 2024) extraordinarily well — better than virtually any other historic-character neighborhood in St. Pete. |
| Historic Uptown | ~40 ft | X | Historic Uptown came through Helene and Milton significantly better than nearly any other historic St. Pete neighborhood. |
| Euclid–St. Paul | ~38 ft | X | Euclid–St. Paul came through the 2024 Helene-Milton sequence well. Most of the district sits at 35-45 feet of elevation on the same ridge as Crescent Lake — far enough inland and high enough that storm-surge… |
| Historic Kenwood | ~35 ft | X · AE pockets | Historic Kenwood proper came through Hurricane Helene (September 2024) significantly better than most other historic St. Pete neighborhoods. |
| Grand Central District / Edge District | ~32 ft | X | The Grand Central / Edge corridor came through Helene and Milton significantly better than the waterfront neighborhoods. |
| Jungle Terrace / Jungle Prada | ~30 ft | X · AE pockets | The interior of Jungle Terrace came through Helene and Milton on the better end of the St. Pete spectrum, thanks to elevation and distance from the open bay. |
| Crescent Heights | ~28 ft | X | Crescent Heights came through Helene and Milton significantly better than waterfront and low-lying St. Pete neighborhoods. |
| Historic Roser Park | ~25 ft | X · AE pockets | Roser Park came through Helene and Milton significantly better than most other historic St. Pete neighborhoods. |
| Warehouse Arts District | ~25 ft | X | The Warehouse Arts District came through Hurricanes Helene (Sep 2024) and Milton (Oct 2024) significantly better than St. Pete's waterfront and barrier-island neighborhoods. |
Mixed — verify the exact address
Zone X inland, AE on the blocks nearest the bay or a bayou. Two houses on the same street can carry different zones and very different premiums.
| Neighborhood | Elevation | FEMA zone | Helene & Milton (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Pink Streets | ~18 ft | X · AE pockets | Greater Pinellas Point — including the Pink Streets — sits on a peninsula bordered on three sides by Tampa Bay, which means storm-surge exposure is real. |
| Greater Pinellas Point | ~12 ft | AE / X | Helene and Milton hit Pinellas Point unevenly. The western shoreline (Bahama Shores edge, Pink Streets bluff lots, anywhere directly facing Tampa Bay) saw real surge damage during Helene — homes that had sto… |
| Old Southeast | ~12 ft | AE / X | Old Southeast came through Helene meaningfully harder than Roser Park or inland districts but better than Shore Acres, Snell Isle, or the Old Northeast east blocks. |
| Historic Old Northeast | ~12 ft | X / AE | Old Northeast was one of the hardest-hit historic neighborhoods in St. Pete during Hurricane Helene (Sept 26, 2024). |
| Gulfport | ~12 ft | X / AE | Hurricane Helene (September 26, 2024) was the most damaging storm in Gulfport's recorded history. |
| Pasadena | ~8 ft | X · AE pockets | Pasadena had a tale of two storms in 2024. Helene's surge on September 26 hit the Gulf-side waterfront — the western blocks of Old Pasadena, Pasadena on the Gulf, and parts of the Pasadena Yacht & Country Cl… |
| Coffee Pot Bayou | ~8 ft | X · AE pockets | Helene's September 2024 surge was the defining storm event of the modern era for Coffee Pot Bayou. |
| Downtown St. Pete | ~8 ft | X · AE pockets | Downtown's elevation (5-15 feet, with most of the inland blocks closer to 10-15) and concrete high-rise construction meant the new towers performed well structurally. |
Zone AE and VE — flood insurance required with a mortgage
Waterfront and island neighborhoods at 4–5 ft. These took the record surge in September 2024, and the FEMA 50% rule now shapes what you can do with an older home here.
| Neighborhood | Elevation | FEMA zone | Helene & Milton (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tierra Verde | ~5 ft | AE / VE | Tierra Verde took a direct hit from Helene's storm surge in September 2024 and Milton's wind two weeks later. |
| Snell Isle | ~5 ft | AE / VE | Hurricane Helene (September 26, 2024) was a worst-case event for Snell Isle. The city closed the island to non-residents during the surge, Fire Rescue deployed six boats for search and rescue across Snell Is… |
| Shore Acres | ~4 ft | AE | Shore Acres took the worst hit of any St. Pete neighborhood in 2024. Hurricane Helene (Sept 26-27, 2024) drove over six feet of storm surge into the neighborhood — the highest on record — flooding an estimat… |
| Coquina Key | ~4 ft | AE | Coquina Key was significantly impacted by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Storm surge from the distant Category 4 storm pushed bay water across most of the island; debris piles along the main roads remai… |
Elevations are neighborhood averages, not lot-by-lot. Zones are FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer designations under the Pinellas County map effective August 2021, and a single neighborhood can span several. Always confirm the exact parcel. Last verified August 2026.
What the zones mean in Pinellas County
FEMA uses the same letters everywhere. What they mean for your wallet and your Saturday afternoons in a hurricane season is local.
Zone X (unshaded)
Outside the 500-year floodplain. No lender requires flood insurance here, and an NFIP policy usually runs a few hundred dollars a year. Most of St. Pete west of 4th Street and north of Central sits in Zone X, and it is where we point buyers who want to stop thinking about flood insurance.
Zone X (shaded) — also called X500
The light green band on the map. Outside the 100-year floodplain but inside the 500-year one: a 0.2% annual chance by FEMA's math. Insurance is optional. It is also where a lot of homeowners who "weren't in a flood zone" took on water in Helene. The policy costs about the same as unshaded X, so we tell every buyer in X500 to carry it.
Zone AE
The 100-year floodplain, with a base flood elevation set on the map. A 1% annual chance sounds small until you multiply it across a 30-year mortgage, which works out to roughly a one-in-four chance of at least one flood. Flood insurance is required with any federally backed mortgage. Premiums depend on the Elevation Certificate more than on the letters.
Zone VE
Coastal high-hazard: the 100-year floodplain plus wave action of three feet or more. The outer edges of Snell Isle, Tierra Verde, and the Gulf beaches. Strictest building code — new construction goes up on pilings with breakaway walls below — and the highest premiums in the county.
Coastal A (the LiMWA line)
A strip of Zone AE landward of VE where waves of 1.5 to 3 feet are expected. FEMA draws it as a "Limit of Moderate Wave Action" line rather than a separate zone, so the map shows AE. Pinellas and St. Pete apply tougher construction standards inside it. Ask about it on any bay-front or Boca Ciega block.
What flood insurance actually costs here
The average NFIP policy in Florida runs about $850 a year according to NerdWallet, and that average hides a wide spread. In Pinellas, an unshaded Zone X home typically prices at a few hundred dollars. Zone AE without an Elevation Certificate can land anywhere from $1,500 to well past $5,000 depending on the structure, the flood history, and how far below base flood elevation the finished floor sits.
Our own house is a useful data point. It sits on a lake in Zone AE, and we pay roughly $800 a year — below the state average — because the Elevation Certificate shows the home above base flood elevation even though the lot is in the zone. That certificate is the single biggest lever on an AE premium, and it costs a few hundred dollars to produce.
Two more things to know before you write an offer. First, FEMA's Risk Rating 2.0 prices every property on its own risk rather than on the zone letter, and it raised premiums for about 80% of Florida policyholders while lowering them for 20%. Second, NFIP policies are assumable. If the seller holds a policy written under older, lower rates, you can take it over at closing and keep the glide path — ask for the declarations page during due diligence.
Private flood insurance is a real option here and averages around $1,500 a year statewide. It can beat NFIP on a well-elevated home and lose badly on a low one. We get both quotes on any specific property before a buyer commits, because the difference between them has changed which house a client bought more than once.
What changed after Helene and Milton
The zone letters on the map did not change in 2024. Almost everything else about buying in one did.
The 6.3-foot surge and the neighborhoods it reached
Helene's surge on September 26–27, 2024 set a St. Petersburg record at the Albert Whitted gauge: 6.3 feet above average high tide, from a storm whose eye passed more than a hundred miles offshore. Shore Acres saw roughly four in five homes flood. Gulfport took seven-plus feet through downtown from Boca Ciega Bay. Snell Isle, Coquina Key, Tierra Verde, and the eastern blocks of Old Northeast had water inside living spaces. Milton followed two weeks later with wind and rain. The table above records what each neighborhood we cover actually experienced.
The FEMA 50% rule is now the deciding factor on older waterfront homes
If a home in a Special Flood Hazard Area (AE or VE) is damaged, or improved, by more than 50% of the structure's market value — land excluded — local code requires the whole building to be brought up to current floodplain standards. In practice that means elevating it, which can run well past $100,000, or tearing down. After Helene, a lot of ground-level 1950s block homes in Shore Acres, Snell Isle, and the beaches crossed that line. When you look at a "renovated" house in AE, ask the city for its substantial-damage determination before you fall in love with the kitchen.
Florida sellers now have to tell you about flooding
Since October 1, 2024, Florida law (HB 1049) requires a written flood disclosure at or before the time you sign the contract: whether the seller has filed a flood insurance claim on the property, and whether they received federal flood assistance for it. A 2025 follow-up widened it to flooding the seller knows about even when no claim was filed. It is a floor, not a ceiling — a seller who bought after 2024 may honestly know nothing. Pull the NFIP claims history and look at the substantial-damage list anyway.
The map you see today is the 2021 map — with one update in progress
The effective Flood Insurance Rate Map for Pinellas County dates from August 2021. FEMA is currently remapping the Alligator Creek watershed — parts of Clearwater, Safety Harbor, and unincorporated Pinellas — and the county publishes those preliminary zones on its flood map site. For St. Petersburg proper, the 2021 map is still the one your lender uses. Verify the effective date on the FEMA panel for any address that matters to you; "the maps changed" is the most common half-truth in Tampa Bay real estate.
Why we start every search with this map
We bought a house on a lake, miles from the Gulf, nowhere near a beach, and assumed that settled the flood question. During Hurricane Milton in October 2024 the surge came back up the river system connected to that lake. Water in the front yard, water in the back yard, and two full days where we could not drive out of the neighborhood. Neighbors who had lived there since the 1970s had never seen anything close. The fish in the pond next door died from saltwater.
Nobody had sat us down with the flood zone map and the elevation data before we bought. So that is now the first conversation we have with every buyer, before the first showing: elevation matters more than distance from the coast, and the map above is where the conversation starts. In the past couple years we have helped over 50 buyers relocate to Tampa Bay, and we would rather lose a sale to a flood zone than close one into a surprise.
— Aaron & Aubrey Chand
Pinellas County flood zone FAQ
How do I find my flood zone in Pinellas County?
Type the address into the map at the top of this page, then confirm it on the county's Flood Map Service Center at floodmaps.pinellas.gov and pull the official FIRM panel from msc.fema.gov. All three read from the same FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer; the county and FEMA sites also show preliminary map changes and Letters of Map Amendment that a lender will honor.
What is flood zone AE in Florida?
Zone AE is the 100-year floodplain where FEMA has set a base flood elevation — a 1% chance of flooding in any given year, or roughly one in four over a 30-year mortgage. In Pinellas County it covers most bay-front, bayou-front, and island neighborhoods. Flood insurance is mandatory with a federally backed mortgage, and the premium is driven by how high the finished floor sits relative to the base flood elevation.
Is flood zone X good or bad?
Unshaded Zone X is the lowest-risk designation on the map and the one we point most buyers toward; flood insurance is optional and inexpensive. Shaded Zone X (X500) is the 0.2% annual-chance band and is not risk-free — plenty of X500 homes in St. Pete flooded in Helene. Carry a policy in either; in X500 we consider it non-negotiable.
Do I need flood insurance in Zone X in Florida?
No lender requires it in Zone X, but roughly a quarter of NFIP claims nationally come from outside high-risk zones, and Helene proved the point locally. A Zone X policy in Pinellas typically costs a few hundred dollars a year. If the house is in shaded X (X500), buy it; if it is in unshaded X, buy it anyway unless the home sits well up on the Disston Ridge.
How much does flood insurance cost in Pinellas County?
Roughly: a few hundred dollars a year in Zone X, $1,500 to $5,000-plus in Zone AE depending on elevation and structure, and more in VE. The state NFIP average is about $850. An Elevation Certificate showing the floor above base flood elevation can pull an AE premium down to Zone X territory — our own AE home runs about $800 a year for exactly that reason. Get an NFIP quote and a private quote on the specific property before you commit.
Is a Pinellas County evacuation zone the same as a FEMA flood zone?
No, and confusing them is the most common mistake we see. Evacuation zones (A through E) are drawn by the county from storm-surge modeling to decide who leaves before a hurricane. FEMA flood zones (X, AE, VE) are drawn from floodplain mapping to set insurance requirements and building code. A home can be in Zone X for insurance and Evacuation Zone A for hurricanes. Check both.
Which St. Pete neighborhoods are not in a flood zone?
Every neighborhood is in some FEMA zone; the ones buyers mean are the ones in unshaded Zone X. In St. Petersburg that is the Disston Ridge and the plateau north of downtown: Disston Heights (up to 61 ft), Allendale Terrace, Historic Uptown, Euclid–St. Paul, Historic Kenwood, Crescent Heights, and most of the Grand Central and Warehouse Arts districts. None of them saw surge flooding in Helene. The table on this page lists each one with its elevation.
What does a Florida home seller have to disclose about flooding?
Under HB 1049, effective October 1, 2024, sellers must give buyers a written flood disclosure at or before contract stating whether they filed a flood insurance claim on the property and whether they received federal flood assistance for it. A 2025 update extended it to flood damage the seller knows about even without a claim. It does not cover previous owners, so also request the NFIP claims history and the city's substantial-damage determination.
Are Pinellas County flood maps changing?
The effective countywide map dates from August 2021. FEMA has a remapping of the Alligator Creek watershed in progress covering parts of Clearwater, Safety Harbor, and unincorporated Pinellas, and the county publishes those preliminary zones at floodmaps.pinellas.gov. St. Petersburg itself is still on the 2021 map. Preliminary maps do not change your insurance until they become effective, but they are a preview of where premiums are headed.
What is the FEMA 50% rule?
Also called substantial improvement or substantial damage. If the cost to repair or improve a home in Zone AE or VE exceeds 50% of the structure's market value (not counting land), local floodplain code requires the entire building to be brought into compliance — usually by elevating it. Many ground-level homes in Shore Acres, Snell Isle, and the beaches crossed that threshold in Helene, which is why so many are being rebuilt on stilts or sold as lots.
Sources
- Pinellas County — Flood Maps & Zones
- Pinellas County Flood Map Service Center
- FEMA Flood Map Service Center
- FloodSmart.gov — flood zones and maps
- Florida Senate — CS/CS/HB 1049 (2024) Flood Disclosure
- NerdWallet — Florida flood insurance costs
Written by Aaron & Aubrey Chand, licensed Florida real estate agents with Excellecore Real Estate. Neighborhood storm notes come from our own showings and local reporting after Helene and Milton. Last verified August 2026. This page is general information, not an insurance quote or a flood determination for any specific property.
Want us to run a specific address?
Zone, elevation, claims history, and a real insurance quote before you fly in for showings. We do this for every buyer we work with, and it takes about five minutes to set up.