Cedar City's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Cedar City 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. Rank it against the rest of the country and Cedar City sits at the 86th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Cedar City by the numbers

USGS's underlying values for Cedar City: 0.336g peak ground acceleration, 0.768g at short period, 0.247g at 1 second. Within Utah alone, Cedar City ranks 77 of 95 cities by seismic hazard - the 19th percentile in-state. Cedar City has a population of about 40,885.

What a retrofit costs in Cedar City

A full earthquake retrofit typically runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally (around $7,000 typical), driven mainly by house size and foundation type, not by Utah specifically. California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant, which covers a large share of this cost, is a California-only program and does not apply in Utah.

What this means for insurance

A Cedar City homeowner cannot buy a standalone earthquake policy in most cases - it is added to an existing homeowners policy as an endorsement, so the place to start is a regular home-insurance quote.

Where Cedar City's figures come from

Cedar City's Category D and every number above trace to USGS's own ASCE 7-16 Design Maps service - see the methodology guide. See the category explainer for what Category D does and doesn't tell you about Cedar City.