Does Lebanon, MO need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Lebanon 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 Lebanon in the 70th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 70% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Lebanon compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.103g, short-period spectral response 0.212g, 1-second spectral response 0.114g. Among 135 Missouri cities in this dataset, Lebanon ranks 74 for seismic hazard, the 46th percentile within the state. About 15,538 people live in Lebanon, Missouri.

What a retrofit costs in Lebanon

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

More on how this number was built

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