Does Pawtucket, RI need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Pawtucket in Seismic Design Category B: Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Pawtucket ranks above 58% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 58th percentile.

Where Pawtucket sits in Rhode Island

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.111g, short-period spectral response 0.201g, 1-second spectral response 0.056g. Among 8 Rhode Island cities in this dataset, Pawtucket ranks 1 for seismic hazard, the 100th percentile within the state. About 76,996 people live in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Retrofit economics for Pawtucket

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Rhode Island. 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 Pawtucket address.

More on how this number was built

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