Ellensburg's Seismic Design Category, explained

Ellensburg carries Seismic Design Category C under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. 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, Ellensburg ranks above 78% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 78th percentile.

Where Ellensburg sits in Washington

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.221g, short-period spectral response 0.503g, 1-second spectral response 0.205g. Among 125 Washington cities in this dataset, Ellensburg ranks 115 for seismic hazard, the 8th percentile within the state. About 20,996 people live in Ellensburg, Washington.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

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

More on how this number was built

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