Dayton, TN: what USGS's seismic model says

Dayton 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 Dayton in the 79th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 79% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Dayton by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.289g, short-period spectral response 0.453g, 1-second spectral response 0.121g. Among 104 Tennessee cities in this dataset, Dayton ranks 75 for seismic hazard, the 28th percentile within the state. About 7,796 people live in Dayton, Tennessee.

Retrofit economics for Dayton

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.

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 Dayton address.

More on how this number was built

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