Easton's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Easton in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Easton ranks above 57% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 57th percentile.

Where Easton sits in Pennsylvania

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.103g, short-period spectral response 0.186g, 1-second spectral response 0.049g. Among 193 Pennsylvania cities in this dataset, Easton ranks 15 for seismic hazard, the 93th percentile within the state. About 30,432 people live in Easton, Pennsylvania.

What a retrofit costs in Easton

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