Gastonia, NC: what USGS's seismic model says

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Gastonia in Seismic Design Category C: 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. That puts Gastonia in the 71th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 71% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where Gastonia sits in North Carolina

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.107g, short-period spectral response 0.208g, 1-second spectral response 0.083g. Among 147 North Carolina cities in this dataset, Gastonia ranks 24 for seismic hazard, the 84th percentile within the state. About 85,535 people live in Gastonia, North Carolina.

Retrofit economics for Gastonia

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

More on how this number was built

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