Does Oneida, NY need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Oneida is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Rank it against the rest of the country and Oneida sits at the 50th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Oneida by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.078g, short-period spectral response 0.155g, 1-second spectral response 0.054g. Among 170 New York cities in this dataset, Oneida ranks 141 for seismic hazard, the 17th percentile within the state. About 10,066 people live in Oneida, New York.

Retrofit economics for Oneida

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

Earthquake insurance for a Oneida 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 Oneida address.

More on how this number was built

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