Does Biloxi, MS need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Biloxi in Seismic Design 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 Biloxi sits at the 27th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Biloxi by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.046g, short-period spectral response 0.095g, 1-second spectral response 0.058g. Among 61 Mississippi cities in this dataset, Biloxi ranks 50 for seismic hazard, the 18th percentile within the state. About 48,144 people live in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Retrofit economics for Biloxi

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

Earthquake insurance for a Biloxi 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 Biloxi address.

More on how this number was built

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