Parkersburg's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Parkersburg is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Parkersburg ranks above 35% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 35th percentile.

Parkersburg by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.057g, short-period spectral response 0.116g, 1-second spectral response 0.056g. Among 26 West Virginia cities in this dataset, Parkersburg ranks 15 for seismic hazard, the 44th percentile within the state. About 28,834 people live in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

What a retrofit costs in Parkersburg

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for West Virginia. 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 Parkersburg address.

More on how this number was built

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