Does Cookeville, TN need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Cookeville is Category C. 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 Cookeville in the 71th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 71% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Cookeville compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.113g, short-period spectral response 0.227g, 1-second spectral response 0.107g. Among 104 Tennessee cities in this dataset, Cookeville ranks 102 for seismic hazard, the 2th percentile within the state. About 37,102 people live in Cookeville, Tennessee.

What a retrofit costs in Cookeville

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

Earthquake insurance for a Cookeville 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 Cookeville address.

More on how this number was built

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