Clinton's Seismic Design Category, explained

Clinton carries Seismic Design Category C under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. 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. That puts Clinton in the 67th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 67% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Clinton by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.068g, short-period spectral response 0.141g, 1-second spectral response 0.084g. Among 61 Mississippi cities in this dataset, Clinton ranks 34 for seismic hazard, the 45th percentile within the state. About 26,617 people live in Clinton, Mississippi.

Retrofit economics for Clinton

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.

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

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 Clinton address.

More on how this number was built

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