Commerce, TX: what USGS's seismic model says

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Commerce 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 Commerce sits at the 35th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Commerce by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.058g, short-period spectral response 0.12g, 1-second spectral response 0.064g. Among 384 Texas cities in this dataset, Commerce ranks 45 for seismic hazard, the 89th percentile within the state. About 9,800 people live in Commerce, Texas.

Retrofit economics for Commerce

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

What this means for insurance

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 Commerce address.

More on how this number was built

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