Does Seward, NE need an earthquake retrofit?

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Seward is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Seward in the 20th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 20% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Seward compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.039g, short-period spectral response 0.081g, 1-second spectral response 0.044g. Among 32 Nebraska cities in this dataset, Seward ranks 9 for seismic hazard, the 74th percentile within the state. About 7,752 people live in Seward, Nebraska.

Retrofit economics for Seward

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

More on how this number was built

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