Hinesville's Seismic Design Category, explained

Hinesville carries Seismic Design Category C under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. 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. Nationally, Hinesville ranks above 71% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 71th percentile.

Hinesville by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.112g, short-period spectral response 0.215g, 1-second spectral response 0.089g. Among 148 Georgia cities in this dataset, Hinesville ranks 38 for seismic hazard, the 75th percentile within the state. About 36,583 people live in Hinesville, Georgia.

What a retrofit costs in Hinesville

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

Earthquake insurance for a Hinesville 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 Hinesville address.

More on how this number was built

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