Odessa, TX: what USGS's seismic model says

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Odessa in Seismic Design Category A: Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. Nationally, Odessa ranks above 16% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 16th percentile.

Odessa by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.076g, short-period spectral response 0.141g, 1-second spectral response 0.035g. Among 384 Texas cities in this dataset, Odessa ranks 202 for seismic hazard, the 48th percentile within the state. About 119,748 people live in Odessa, Texas.

Retrofit economics for Odessa

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

Insuring against this, not just retrofitting

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 Odessa address.

More on how this number was built

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