Benton, AR: what USGS's seismic model says

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Benton in Seismic Design Category D: High seismic hazard - this is the category most of coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and other active fault regions fall into. Code mandates significant seismic detailing and restricts irregular structural configurations. This is the category the Brace + Bolt scope (cripple-wall bracing, foundation bolting) is built for. Nationally, Benton ranks above 80% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 80th percentile.

Benton by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.156g, short-period spectral response 0.298g, 1-second spectral response 0.129g. Among 68 Arkansas cities in this dataset, Benton ranks 31 for seismic hazard, the 55th percentile within the state. About 38,088 people live in Benton, Arkansas.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

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

Earthquake insurance for a Benton 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 Benton address.

More on how this number was built

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