East Chicago's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, East Chicago is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, East Chicago ranks above 35% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 35th percentile.

East Chicago by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.058g, short-period spectral response 0.117g, 1-second spectral response 0.065g. Among 126 Indiana cities in this dataset, East Chicago ranks 100 for seismic hazard, the 21th percentile within the state. About 25,768 people live in East Chicago, Indiana.

What a retrofit costs in East Chicago

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

More on how this number was built

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