Palmyra, PA: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Palmyra 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 Palmyra sits at the 50th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Palmyra by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.081g, short-period spectral response 0.151g, 1-second spectral response 0.045g. Among 193 Pennsylvania cities in this dataset, Palmyra ranks 68 for seismic hazard, the 65th percentile within the state. About 7,735 people live in Palmyra, Pennsylvania.

What a retrofit costs in Palmyra

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

What this means for insurance

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 Palmyra address.

More on how this number was built

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