Does Erwin, TN need an earthquake retrofit?

Erwin 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. Rank it against the rest of the country and Erwin sits at the 76th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Erwin sits in Tennessee

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.173g, short-period spectral response 0.296g, 1-second spectral response 0.091g. Among 104 Tennessee cities in this dataset, Erwin ranks 88 for seismic hazard, the 16th percentile within the state. About 6,020 people live in Erwin, Tennessee.

What a retrofit costs in Erwin

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.

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 Erwin address.

More on how this number was built

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