Pottsville, PA: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Pottsville is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Pottsville in the 46th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 46% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Pottsville by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.071g, short-period spectral response 0.136g, 1-second spectral response 0.044g. Among 193 Pennsylvania cities in this dataset, Pottsville ranks 77 for seismic hazard, the 60th percentile within the state. About 13,404 people live in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

Retrofit economics for Pottsville

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.

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 Pottsville address.

More on how this number was built

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