De Queen's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, De Queen is 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 De Queen sits at the 42th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

How De Queen compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.067g, short-period spectral response 0.14g, 1-second spectral response 0.08g. Among 68 Arkansas cities in this dataset, De Queen ranks 67 for seismic hazard, the 1th percentile within the state. About 6,069 people live in De Queen, Arkansas.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

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

More on how this number was built

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