Aurora's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Aurora is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Rank it against the rest of the country and Aurora sits at the 49th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Aurora by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.075g, short-period spectral response 0.14g, 1-second spectral response 0.049g. Among 254 Ohio cities in this dataset, Aurora ranks 64 for seismic hazard, the 75th percentile within the state. About 17,985 people live in Aurora, Ohio.

What a retrofit costs in Aurora

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

Earthquake insurance for a Aurora home

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 Aurora address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Aurora'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.