Hull, MA Flood Zones: FEMA Basics
Hull covers 26.9 square miles in total, but only 2.8 of those square miles are land -- the remaining 24.1 square miles, or 89.6% of the town, is water. That makes Hull the most water-dominant town in this South Shore cluster by a wide margin, well beyond Cohasset's already-notable 68.9% water share. Hull sits on the narrow, hook-shaped Nantasket Peninsula, a chain of glacial drumlins connected by narrow necks of land, with the open Atlantic on one side and Boston Harbor's waters and coves on the other. That geography is the reason flood-zone coverage is so extensive relative to the town's small footprint: with barely 2.8 square miles of land carrying roughly 10,000 year-round residents, a much larger share of Hull's built environment sits within reach of tidal water than in almost any other town of comparable population. This page explains how FEMA flood zones work in general, lays out what Hull's own 2024 hazard-mitigation plan draft says about zones and repetitive-loss properties here, is direct about what could not be confirmed in the research behind it, and points to where to pull a current, address-specific determination rather than guessing from geography alone.
FEMA Flood Zones, in Plain Terms
A FEMA flood zone is a designation shown on a community's Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), used for insurance underwriting and building-code purposes -- not a description of how a place felt in the last storm anyone remembers. Zone X covers minimal-hazard areas outside the mapped 1%-annual-chance floodplain, with no federal mandatory flood-insurance requirement, though a lender can still require it; a related designation, X500, marks the more moderate 0.2%-annual-chance ("500-year") flood area. Zone AE is the mapped 1%-annual-chance, or "100-year," floodplain, tied to a specific Base Flood Elevation, and the related A1-A30 and AO designations cover similar 1%-annual-chance areas with slightly different mapping methods (numbered elevation zones and shallow-flooding/sheet-flow areas, respectively). Zone VE is the coastal high-hazard "wave action" zone, reserved for shoreline directly exposed to storm-driven waves, carrying the strictest construction rules -- elevated construction on pilings, no habitable space below the base flood elevation.
These zone lines are not permanent. FEMA periodically remaps communities as shoreline conditions, elevation surveys, and storm modeling change, so a parcel mapped one way on an older FIRM is not guaranteed to hold that designation on the current effective map. Nothing on this page assigns a zone to any specific Hull street or address -- for that, use FEMA's own current map, covered at the end.
A Town That Is 89.6% Water
Hull's water share is worth sitting with for a moment, because it changes what "coastal exposure" means here compared with almost anywhere else in this cluster. The town's roughly 7-mile peninsula is, in places, barely more than a narrow neck wide, with ocean-facing beach on one side and harbor coves, guts, and ponds on the other -- meaning a very high proportion of the town's land is close to water in one direction or another, not just along a single beachfront edge. Named water features and low-lying stretches run the length of the peninsula, from Pemberton Point at the northern tip down through Hull Village, Allerton, Gunrock, Stony Beach, and Crescent Beach, to Nantasket Beach at the southern end.
That geography does not by itself assign any parcel a FEMA zone, but it is the reason Hull's own 2024 hazard-mitigation plan draft references such a wide range of flood-zone designations across the town, and why the repetitive-loss numbers below are as large as they are for such a small land area.
A Wide Range of Zones, and a CRS Class That Is Not Confirmed
Per the Town of Hull's own 2024 hazard-mitigation plan draft (prepared with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council), FEMA flood-zone designations AO, AE, A1-A30, X500, and VE are all referenced as applying somewhere within Hull -- reflecting both the 1%-annual-chance (100-year) and 0.2%-annual-chance (500-year, X500) flood areas, plus the high-velocity wave-action VE zones found along the peninsula's most exposed ocean frontage. That same plan documents 295 total FEMA-tracked repetitive-loss properties in Hull: 261 classified as standard Repetitive Loss and 34 as Severe Repetitive Loss, with combined historical claims exceeding $16.5 million since 1978. That is a genuinely large repetitive-loss count for a town with only 2.8 square miles of land.
Hull is confirmed to participate in FEMA's Community Rating System (CRS) program -- the same 2024 plan references a 2017 repetitive-loss analysis tied to CRS -- but the research behind this page could not confirm Hull's specific current CRS class number. Do not assume Hull shares a neighboring town's previously-confirmed class, such as Marshfield's Class 7 rating, or any other cluster town's class; no source found in this research assigned Hull a specific class, and that figure should be treated as an open item requiring direct verification via FEMA's own current CRS community list before it is used in any content or insurance discussion.
Areas the Town Has Named as Flood-Hazard Priorities
Separate from any specific zone designation, Hull's own 2024 hazard-mitigation plan draft names at least 14 locally identified flood-hazard and seawall-need areas across the peninsula. Named specifically among them are Atlantic Avenue, Nantasket Beach, Stony Beach, and Point Allerton, along with various "alphabet streets" on the ocean side of the peninsula. These are the areas the town itself has flagged as priorities for seawall and shoreline work, not a substitute for a parcel-level FEMA determination.
Worth knowing alongside that list: Hull has multiple named, currently active or recently completed seawall and shoreline-stabilization projects tied to some of these same areas, including work along Crescent Beach/Atlantic Avenue, a Harborview Road coastal-bank stabilization project, and reported work at Stony Beach -- a reminder that flood exposure here is an active planning subject for the town, not just a historical map designation.
How to Actually Check a Hull Parcel
Nothing above -- the 89.6% water share, the range of zone designations referenced in the town's own hazard-mitigation plan, or the list of named flood-hazard priority areas -- substitutes for a parcel-specific FEMA determination, and none of it should be read as confirming a zone for any particular Hull address. For that, go directly to FEMA's Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov), enter the property address, and pull the current effective Flood Insurance Rate Map panel. That lookup will show whether a given parcel falls in Zone X, X500, AE, A1-A30, AO, VE, or another designation, along with the Base Flood Elevation where one applies.
From there, confirm any building, elevation, or floodplain-management requirements directly with the Town of Hull itself, since parcel-specific detail (and Hull's actual current CRS class) sits with the town and with FEMA's own records rather than with any general research summary. If you are evaluating a specific purchase anywhere along Nantasket Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Stony Beach, Point Allerton, or one of the ocean-side alphabet streets, a flood-zone determination from a title company or flood-certification service, ordered as part of a mortgage closing, and a conversation with a local, Hull-familiar insurance agent and a licensed engineer or surveyor about AE- and VE-zone premium and construction requirements are both worth doing before you are under contract, not after.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. General FEMA flood-zone category descriptions (Zone X, X500, AE, A1-A30, AO, VE) and the Community Rating System reflect publicly documented National Flood Insurance Program definitions and are not specific to any Hull parcel. Hull's geography (26.9 square miles total, 2.8 square miles land, 24.1 square miles / 89.6% water) reflects Wikipedia-sourced infobox data. The FEMA flood-zone designations referenced as applying somewhere within Hull (AO, AE, A1-A30, X500, and VE), the repetitive-loss figures (295 total FEMA-tracked properties: 261 Repetitive Loss and 34 Severe Repetitive Loss, combined historical claims exceeding $16.5 million since 1978), and the at-least-14 locally identified flood-hazard and seawall-need areas (including Atlantic Avenue, Nantasket Beach, Stony Beach, Point Allerton, and ocean-side alphabet streets) are drawn from the Town of Hull's own 2024 hazard-mitigation plan draft, prepared with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. That same plan references a 2017 repetitive-loss analysis tied to Hull's participation in FEMA's Community Rating System (CRS), confirming Hull's participation in the program -- but Hull's specific current CRS class number was not confirmed in this research. Do not assume Hull shares Marshfield's previously-confirmed Class 7 CRS rating, or any other cluster town's class; that figure requires direct verification via FEMA's own current CRS community list. This page is general education, not a flood-zone determination -- for an address-specific FEMA flood zone, use FEMA's Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) directly, contact the Town of Hull directly for parcel-specific information, and confirm floodplain-management and construction requirements with a licensed engineer, surveyor, or insurance professional before making any purchase or building decision.