Richlands's Seismic Design Category, explained

Richlands 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, Richlands ranks above 61% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 61th percentile.

Where Richlands sits in Virginia

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.148g, short-period spectral response 0.256g, 1-second spectral response 0.079g. Among 63 Virginia cities in this dataset, Richlands ranks 7 for seismic hazard, the 90th percentile within the state. About 5,074 people live in Richlands, Virginia.

What a retrofit costs in Richlands

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

More on how this number was built

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