Does Plymouth, PA need an earthquake retrofit?

Plymouth carries Seismic Design Category B under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Plymouth ranks above 37% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 37th percentile.

Where Plymouth sits in Pennsylvania

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.06g, short-period spectral response 0.121g, 1-second spectral response 0.044g. Among 193 Pennsylvania cities in this dataset, Plymouth ranks 104 for seismic hazard, the 46th percentile within the state. About 5,810 people live in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.

Retrofit economics for Plymouth

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 Plymouth address.

More on how this number was built

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