Oak Harbor's Seismic Design Category, explained

Oak Harbor carries Seismic Design Category D under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. 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. That puts Oak Harbor in the 93th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 93% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Oak Harbor by the numbers

USGS's underlying values for Oak Harbor: 0.591g peak ground acceleration, 1.36g at short period, 0.488g at 1 second. Within Washington alone, Oak Harbor ranks 22 of 125 cities by seismic hazard - the 83th percentile in-state. Oak Harbor has a population of about 24,163.

Retrofit economics for Oak Harbor

A full earthquake retrofit typically runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally (around $7,000 typical), driven mainly by house size and foundation type, not by Washington specifically. California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant, which covers a large share of this cost, is a California-only program and does not apply in Washington.

Earthquake insurance for a Oak Harbor home

A Oak Harbor homeowner cannot buy a standalone earthquake policy in most cases - it is added to an existing homeowners policy as an endorsement, so the place to start is a regular home-insurance quote.

Where Oak Harbor's figures come from

Oak Harbor's Category D and every number above trace to USGS's own ASCE 7-16 Design Maps service - see the methodology guide. See the category explainer for what Category D does and doesn't tell you about Oak Harbor.