Does Scranton, PA need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Scranton is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Scranton in the 40th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 40% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Scranton by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.063g, short-period spectral response 0.126g, 1-second spectral response 0.045g. Among 193 Pennsylvania cities in this dataset, Scranton ranks 86 for seismic hazard, the 56th percentile within the state. About 75,905 people live in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

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 Scranton address.

More on how this number was built

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