Does Salem, OH need an earthquake retrofit?

Salem 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, Salem ranks above 32% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 32th percentile.

Where Salem sits in Ohio

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.053g, short-period spectral response 0.106g, 1-second spectral response 0.047g. Among 254 Ohio cities in this dataset, Salem ranks 242 for seismic hazard, the 5th percentile within the state. About 11,685 people live in Salem, Ohio.

What a retrofit costs in Salem

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Ohio. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

Earthquake insurance for a Salem home

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 Salem address.

More on how this number was built

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