Why a stage is more useful than a zone
A federal flood zone is a yes or a no. A river stage is a scale, and the river has a gauge on it: knowing that an address is dry at 56 feet and under water at 60 tells you how much river it takes, which is a fact you can watch a forecast against. The report gives the lowest stage that reaches the address, because the river does not have to get to 61 feet to be a problem if it is a problem at 56.
It is not the federal zone, and is never blended with it
The FEMA zone with its panel and effective date is on its own line, because that is the map a lender uses and the one an insurance application asks about. The county's modelling is a second, different answer. Mixing them would produce a number that is neither.
Outside every stage is an answer
Most of the city is. Cincinnati City Hall, half a mile from the water, is outside all six — and the report says so plainly rather than leaving the line blank, because an absent line reads as unread rather than as dry.
Counts run 7 September 2026.