Athens-Clarke County, GA: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Athens-Clarke County is Category C. Moderate seismic hazard. Code adds irregular-building restrictions and requires bracing of some nonstructural components (e.g. tall shelving, water heaters) in addition to structural detailing. Rank it against the rest of the country and Athens-Clarke County sits at the 70th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Athens-Clarke County sits in Georgia

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.106g, short-period spectral response 0.206g, 1-second spectral response 0.086g. Among 148 Georgia cities in this dataset, Athens-Clarke County ranks 47 for seismic hazard, the 69th percentile within the state. About 128,691 people live in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia.

Retrofit economics for Athens-Clarke County

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Georgia. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

What this means for insurance

Outside California, earthquake coverage is typically sold as an endorsement added to a standard homeowners policy, not a separate product - worth asking about directly when getting a home-insurance quote for a Athens-Clarke County address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Athens-Clarke County's numbers. The guide to what a Seismic Design Category actually means covers why a category is never a substitute for an engineer's assessment of one specific house.