Forney's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Forney in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Rank it against the rest of the country and Forney sits at the 28th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Forney sits in Texas

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.047g, short-period spectral response 0.098g, 1-second spectral response 0.055g. Among 384 Texas cities in this dataset, Forney ranks 109 for seismic hazard, the 72th percentile within the state. About 38,572 people live in Forney, Texas.

Retrofit economics for Forney

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Texas. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

Earthquake insurance for a Forney home

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 Forney address.

More on how this number was built

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