Install Jentic One Beta
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the National Flood Data API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fnationalflooddata.com%2Fnationalflooddata" | shStep 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fnationalflooddata.com%2Fnationalflooddata" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
What an agent can do with National Flood Data API.
Determine the FEMA flood zone for a US street address or latitude/longitude pair
Retrieve a flood risk assessment summarising NFHL hazard layers for a property
Look up ground elevation values for a coordinate to support flood depth analysis
Fetch the corresponding FEMA FIRM map panel image and panel identifier for a location
GET STARTED
Run batch flood zone lookups for property portfolios prior to closing or renewal
Pull flood determination data into mortgage underwriting and insurance binding workflows
Patterns agents use National Flood Data API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Mortgage Flood Determination
Mortgage originators must determine whether a property requires flood insurance under federal law before closing a loan. The National Flood Data API returns the FEMA flood zone code, FIRM panel identifier, and Special Flood Hazard Area status for the subject address in a single request, replacing manual map look-ups. A complete determination typically resolves in seconds, allowing the result to be embedded directly in the loan origination system.
Call /flood-zone with the subject property address and return the flood zone code, FIRM panel ID, and SFHA flag for inclusion in the loan file.
Property Insurance Underwriting
Insurance carriers use flood zone and elevation data to price property policies and decide whether to require a separate NFIP or private flood policy. The API combines /flood-zone, /flood-risk, and /elevation responses so an underwriter or rating engine can score flood exposure for a single address in one workflow. This avoids the cost of ordering an external flood certificate for every quote.
For a quoted address, fetch flood zone, flood risk, and elevation, then return a structured underwriting payload containing zone, BFE, and ground elevation.
Real Estate Portfolio Risk Review
Property investors and asset managers review flood exposure across portfolios after FEMA map revisions or following major weather events. Iterating over portfolio addresses against the API surfaces every parcel now sitting in a Special Flood Hazard Area, with FIRM panel and base flood elevation attached. The output supports re-rating insurance, planning mitigation, and triggering disclosure obligations.
Iterate over a CSV of 250 portfolio addresses, call /flood-zone for each, and produce a summary listing every property whose zone begins with A or V.
Agent-Driven Flood Compliance
Agent-built lending and insurance assistants need flood determinations on demand without managing FEMA data ingestion themselves. Through Jentic, an agent searches for the National Flood Data operation by intent and executes the call with a structured address payload, receiving the zone, panel, and risk fields back as JSON. The API key is held in your Jentic One instance, so the agent never sees the raw secret.
Search Jentic for 'check FEMA flood zone for an address', load the schema for /flood-zone, and execute it for the borrower's property.
4 endpoints — the national flood data api delivers fema flood map data, flood zone determinations, flood risk assessments, and elevation lookups for any us property address or coordinate.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
/flood-zone
Get flood zone determination for an address or coordinate
/flood-risk
Get flood risk assessment for a property
/elevation
Get ground elevation for a coordinate
/fema-map
Get the FEMA FIRM map panel for a location
/flood-zone
Get flood zone determination for an address or coordinate
/flood-risk
Get flood risk assessment for a property
/elevation
Get ground elevation for a coordinate
/fema-map
Get the FEMA FIRM map panel for a location
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the National Flood Data API by hand means learning its Authorization-header key auth on the api.nationalflooddata.com host and handling errors across the flood-zone, flood-risk, and elevation calls yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the National Flood Data API from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
This API takes its address and coordinates as query parameters rather than in the URL path, so scope the agent to the operations it needs, such as flood-zone and flood-risk lookups. You choose the operations it may call, so the elevation or FEMA-map calls are not included unless you add them.
Credential isolation
Your National Flood Data API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the Authorization header at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'check the FEMA flood zone for an address', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema so the agent calls /flood-zone or /flood-risk without browsing the reference docs.
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Specific to using National Flood Data API through Jentic.
What authentication does the National Flood Data API use?
The API uses an API key passed in the Authorization header. Jentic stores the key in its vault and injects it at execution time, so the raw secret never enters the agent's prompt or memory.
Can I get the FEMA flood zone for a single address with the National Flood Data API?
Yes. Send a GET to /flood-zone with the address or latitude/longitude as query parameters and the response contains the FEMA zone code, FIRM panel identifier, and Special Flood Hazard Area indicator pulled from the NFHL dataset.
What are the rate limits for the National Flood Data API?
The OpenAPI spec does not publish rate limits. Account-level throughput is governed by the subscription plan agreed with National Flood Data; check your plan for per-second and monthly quotas before running large batch jobs.
How do I run a flood determination through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, then use the search query 'check FEMA flood zone for an address' to locate the /flood-zone operation, load its schema, and execute it with your address payload. Run it through Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer, to obtain an agent API key.
Does the National Flood Data API return base flood elevation values?
Yes. The /flood-zone and /flood-risk endpoints return base flood elevation where FEMA publishes it for the location, and /elevation returns ground elevation that can be combined with BFE to estimate flood depth.
Is the National Flood Data API free to use?
No. National Flood Data is a paid commercial data service with subscription and per-call pricing. Pricing is set by the vendor at https://nationalflooddata.com - Jentic adds no additional fee on top of the underlying API call.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the National Flood Data API?
Yes. Because you run your own self-hosted Jentic One instance, your rules decide which National Flood Data operations the agent may call and which credentials it may use. You can scope the agent to just the flood-zone and flood-risk lookups it needs, leaving the elevation and FEMA-map operations out unless you explicitly add them. The stored API key is injected only for the operations you permit, so the agent never touches endpoints or secrets you have not authorized.
For Agents
Look up FEMA flood zone, flood risk, elevation, and FEMA flood map panel data for any US address or coordinate.
Use for: I need to determine the FEMA flood zone for a property address, Check whether a US address sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, Retrieve a flood risk assessment for a residential property, Get the FEMA FIRM panel identifier for a coordinate
Not supported: Does not handle property valuation, hurricane wind risk, or flood insurance policy issuance - use for FEMA flood zone, flood risk, and elevation lookups only.
The National Flood Data API delivers FEMA flood map data, flood zone determinations, flood risk assessments, and elevation lookups for any US property address or coordinate. It returns the structured FEMA NFHL data layers - flood zone codes, base flood elevations, FIRM panel identifiers, and Letter of Map Change history - that lenders, insurers, and real estate platforms need for compliance and underwriting. Results are sourced directly from FEMA NFHL data and exposed through a small set of GET endpoints suitable for batch lookups.