Torrington's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Torrington is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Rank it against the rest of the country and Torrington sits at the 54th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

Where Torrington sits in Connecticut

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.091g, short-period spectral response 0.173g, 1-second spectral response 0.054g. Among 21 Connecticut cities in this dataset, Torrington ranks 21 for seismic hazard, the 0th percentile within the state. About 35,673 people live in Torrington, Connecticut.

What a retrofit costs in Torrington

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

More on how this number was built

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