Van Wert's Seismic Design Category, explained

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Van Wert in Seismic Design 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 Van Wert sits at the 51th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

How Van Wert compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.082g, short-period spectral response 0.152g, 1-second spectral response 0.065g. Among 254 Ohio cities in this dataset, Van Wert ranks 38 for seismic hazard, the 85th percentile within the state. About 11,123 people live in Van Wert, Ohio.

Bracing and bolting: the actual cost

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Ohio. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

Earthquake insurance for a Van Wert home

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 Wert address.

More on how this number was built

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