Medical Lake, WA: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Medical Lake is 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. Rank it against the rest of the country and Medical Lake sits at the 73th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Medical Lake by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.135g, short-period spectral response 0.302g, 1-second spectral response 0.113g. Among 125 Washington cities in this dataset, Medical Lake ranks 121 for seismic hazard, the 3th percentile within the state. About 5,003 people live in Medical Lake, Washington.

Retrofit economics for Medical Lake

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

Earthquake insurance for a Medical Lake 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 Medical Lake address.

More on how this number was built

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