Smithville, TN: what USGS's seismic model says

Smithville carries Seismic Design Category C under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Moderate seismic hazard. Code adds irregular-building restrictions and requires bracing of some nonstructural components (e.g. tall shelving, water heaters) in addition to structural detailing. That puts Smithville in the 71th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 71% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Smithville compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.115g, short-period spectral response 0.232g, 1-second spectral response 0.112g. Among 104 Tennessee cities in this dataset, Smithville ranks 101 for seismic hazard, the 3th percentile within the state. About 5,546 people live in Smithville, Tennessee.

Retrofit economics for Smithville

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

More on how this number was built

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