Does Easton, MD need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Easton is Category A. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. That puts Easton in the 15th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 15% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Easton by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.059g, short-period spectral response 0.116g, 1-second spectral response 0.04g. Among 46 Maryland cities in this dataset, Easton ranks 41 for seismic hazard, the 11th percentile within the state. About 17,381 people live in Easton, Maryland.

What a retrofit costs in Easton

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

More on how this number was built

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