Does Gardner, KS need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Gardner in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Gardner in the 26th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 26% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Gardner sits in Kansas

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.045g, short-period spectral response 0.095g, 1-second spectral response 0.069g. Among 63 Kansas cities in this dataset, Gardner ranks 20 for seismic hazard, the 69th percentile within the state. About 25,836 people live in Gardner, Kansas.

Retrofit economics for Gardner

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

Earthquake insurance for a Gardner 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 Gardner address.

More on how this number was built

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