Goshen's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Goshen is 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 Goshen sits at the 36th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

How Goshen compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.058g, short-period spectral response 0.116g, 1-second spectral response 0.061g. Among 126 Indiana cities in this dataset, Goshen ranks 98 for seismic hazard, the 22th percentile within the state. About 34,458 people live in Goshen, Indiana.

Retrofit economics for Goshen

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

Earthquake insurance for a Goshen 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 Goshen address.

More on how this number was built

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