Does Van Buren, AR need an earthquake retrofit?

Van Buren 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. Nationally, Van Buren ranks above 67% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 67th percentile.

Where Van Buren sits in Arkansas

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.076g, short-period spectral response 0.159g, 1-second spectral response 0.087g. Among 68 Arkansas cities in this dataset, Van Buren ranks 52 for seismic hazard, the 24th percentile within the state. About 24,396 people live in Van Buren, Arkansas.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

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

More on how this number was built

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