Bentonville's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Bentonville in Seismic Design 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. Nationally, Bentonville ranks above 67% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 67th percentile.

How Bentonville compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.072g, short-period spectral response 0.152g, 1-second spectral response 0.089g. Among 68 Arkansas cities in this dataset, Bentonville ranks 61 for seismic hazard, the 10th percentile within the state. About 61,791 people live in Bentonville, Arkansas.

What a retrofit costs in Bentonville

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 Bentonville 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 Bentonville address.

More on how this number was built

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