Nicholasville, KY: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Nicholasville 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 Nicholasville sits at the 68th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Nicholasville by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.083g, short-period spectral response 0.169g, 1-second spectral response 0.084g. Among 79 Kentucky cities in this dataset, Nicholasville ranks 40 for seismic hazard, the 50th percentile within the state. About 33,458 people live in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Retrofit economics for Nicholasville

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

More on how this number was built

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