Does Dunbar, WV need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Dunbar is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Dunbar in the 50th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 50% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Dunbar compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.079g, short-period spectral response 0.152g, 1-second spectral response 0.064g. Among 26 West Virginia cities in this dataset, Dunbar ranks 7 for seismic hazard, the 76th percentile within the state. About 7,111 people live in Dunbar, West Virginia.

What a retrofit costs in Dunbar

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

Earthquake insurance for a Dunbar 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 Dunbar address.

More on how this number was built

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