Does Fort Bragg, CA need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Fort Bragg in Seismic Design Category D: High seismic hazard - this is the category most of coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and other active fault regions fall into. Code mandates significant seismic detailing and restricts irregular structural configurations. This is the category the Brace + Bolt scope (cripple-wall bracing, foundation bolting) is built for. Nationally, Fort Bragg ranks above 94% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 94th percentile.

Where Fort Bragg sits in California

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.644g, short-period spectral response 1.5g, 1-second spectral response 0.6g. Among 429 California cities in this dataset, Fort Bragg ranks 215 for seismic hazard, the 50th percentile within the state. About 7,117 people live in Fort Bragg, California.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

Because Fort Bragg is in California, the EBB grant applies if the ZIP code participates and the house qualifies (wood-framed house on a raised (not slab-on-grade) foundation, built before 1980): a $3,000-$7,000 bracing-and-bolting job drops to $0-$4,000 after the $3,000 base grant, or effectively free for income-eligible households getting the full $10,000.

What this means for insurance

Earthquake coverage in California mostly runs through the California Earthquake Authority (CEA), sold only through licensed agents at CEA-participating insurers - there is no direct-to-consumer CEA policy. A general home-insurance quote is the practical starting point for a Fort Bragg homeowner asking about it.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Fort Bragg's numbers. The retrofit cost and grant guide covers every EBB eligibility rule, including the ones this page can't check.