Does Millcreek, UT need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Millcreek in Seismic Design Category D: High seismic hazard - this is the category most of coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and other active fault regions fall into. Code mandates significant seismic detailing and restricts irregular structural configurations. This is the category the Brace + Bolt scope (cripple-wall bracing, foundation bolting) is built for. Nationally, Millcreek ranks above 93% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 93th percentile.

Where Millcreek sits in Utah

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.598g, short-period spectral response 1.321g, 1-second spectral response 0.486g. Among 95 Utah cities in this dataset, Millcreek ranks 44 for seismic hazard, the 54th percentile within the state. About 64,217 people live in Millcreek, Utah.

Retrofit economics for Millcreek

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

Earthquake insurance for a Millcreek 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 Millcreek address.

More on how this number was built

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