Leesburg's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Leesburg is Category A. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. Nationally, Leesburg ranks above 11% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 11th percentile.

Where Leesburg sits in Florida

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.03g, short-period spectral response 0.063g, 1-second spectral response 0.034g. Among 228 Florida cities in this dataset, Leesburg ranks 63 for seismic hazard, the 73th percentile within the state. About 37,815 people live in Leesburg, Florida.

Retrofit economics for Leesburg

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

More on how this number was built

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