Connell's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Connell is 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. Nationally, Connell ranks above 80% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 80th percentile.

Where Connell sits in Washington

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.16g, short-period spectral response 0.358g, 1-second spectral response 0.139g. Among 125 Washington cities in this dataset, Connell ranks 114 for seismic hazard, the 9th percentile within the state. About 5,071 people live in Connell, Washington.

What a retrofit costs in Connell

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Washington. 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 Connell address.

More on how this number was built

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