Martinsburg's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Martinsburg is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Martinsburg ranks above 38% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 38th percentile.

How Martinsburg compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.061g, short-period spectral response 0.121g, 1-second spectral response 0.043g. Among 26 West Virginia cities in this dataset, Martinsburg ranks 14 for seismic hazard, the 48th percentile within the state. About 19,047 people live in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Retrofit economics for Martinsburg

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

More on how this number was built

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