A Federal Register Notice and a FIRM Effective Date

The cited Federal Register notice, 91 FR 54340, Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002, states: “The date of December 10, 2026 has been established for the FIRM and, where applicable, the supporting FIS report showing the new or modified flood hazard information for each community.” This article compares that notice with the related written-publication and timing provisions in 44 CFR part 67.

This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.

Key points

• The cited notice states that December 10, 2026 has been established for the FIRM and supporting FIS report for each listed community. (91 FR 54340, Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002)
• The example notice — 91 FR 54340, Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002 — is issued “in accordance with section 110 of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, 42 U.S.C. 4104, and 44 CFR part 67.”
• Federal regulation requires the underlying final flood elevation determination to be published in the Federal Register in written form (44 CFR part 67).
• Federal regulation also caps the gap between that final determination and the FIRM’s effective date at six months (44 CFR part 67).
• This notice identifies communities and map repositories, not individual properties, panels, zones, or elevations (91 FR 54340, Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002).

Notice setting the effective date

The Federal Register notice is the document that fixes the calendar date on which a FIRM takes effect. The lead above already quotes that notice’s effective-date language from 91 FR 54340, Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002; this section looks at how the notice identifies itself for verification.

The notice carries its own citation — “91 FR 54340” — and its own docket identifier — “Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002” (source). Both let a reader locate and confirm the exact published document rather than relying on a secondhand summary of it.

The legal authority behind the notice

The notice states its own legal basis. It was issued “in accordance with section 110 of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, 42 U.S.C. 4104, and 44 CFR part 67” (91 FR 54340, Docket ID FEMA-2026-0002). That statute and regulation set out the process FEMA follows before a FIRM’s effective date is finalized and published.

Federal Register publication rule

The requirement that this kind of determination appear in the Federal Register is not incidental — it is written into federal regulation. Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations states: “The Federal Insurance Administrator’s notice of the final flood elevation determination for a community shall be in written form and published in the Federal Register” (44 CFR part 67). This is the rule that makes the Federal Register the reader-verifiable record for this kind of determination, rather than a map viewer, a local floodplain office, or any other secondary source.

Six-month effective-date cap

Federal regulation also limits how long a FIRM’s effective date can be delayed after the underlying elevation determination is finalized: “The effective date of a FIRM shall begin not later than six months after the final flood elevation determination” (44 CFR part 67). This caps the gap a reader should expect to see between a final determination notice and the date the map itself takes effect.

This article confirms only how and where a FIRM’s effective date is officially published — it does not identify which map panel covers any specific address, what flood zone applies to any address, what the base flood elevation is at any address, or what any of this means for a specific property’s flood risk or insurance requirement. The notice examined here lists communities and map repository locations, not individual properties, so it cannot answer any address-level question. Readers with a question about a specific property should consult the applicable community’s map panel and, where needed, a local floodplain administrator or licensed surveyor.

Source links

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/21/2026-17078/final-flood-hazard-determinations https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-44/part-67