North Myrtle Beach's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, North Myrtle Beach 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 North Myrtle Beach sits at the 74th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where North Myrtle Beach sits in South Carolina

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.137g, short-period spectral response 0.261g, 1-second spectral response 0.1g. Among 66 South Carolina cities in this dataset, North Myrtle Beach ranks 58 for seismic hazard, the 12th percentile within the state. About 20,798 people live in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Retrofit economics for North Myrtle Beach

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

Earthquake insurance for a North Myrtle Beach 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 North Myrtle Beach address.

More on how this number was built

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