East Ridge's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, East Ridge 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. Nationally, East Ridge ranks above 79% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 79th percentile.

How East Ridge compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.325g, short-period spectral response 0.496g, 1-second spectral response 0.124g. Among 104 Tennessee cities in this dataset, East Ridge ranks 68 for seismic hazard, the 35th percentile within the state. About 21,970 people live in East Ridge, Tennessee.

What a retrofit costs in East Ridge

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.

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

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 Ridge address.

More on how this number was built

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