Josephine, TX: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Josephine 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 Josephine sits at the 33th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Josephine sits in Texas

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.055g, short-period spectral response 0.113g, 1-second spectral response 0.059g. Among 384 Texas cities in this dataset, Josephine ranks 58 for seismic hazard, the 85th percentile within the state. About 8,807 people live in Josephine, Texas.

What a retrofit costs in Josephine

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

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

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 Josephine address.

More on how this number was built

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