North Vernon's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, North Vernon 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. That puts North Vernon in the 70th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 70% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Where North Vernon sits in Indiana

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.1g, short-period spectral response 0.196g, 1-second spectral response 0.089g. Among 126 Indiana cities in this dataset, North Vernon ranks 31 for seismic hazard, the 76th percentile within the state. About 6,565 people live in North Vernon, Indiana.

What a retrofit costs in North Vernon

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

Earthquake insurance for a North Vernon 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 Vernon address.

More on how this number was built

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