Vandalia's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Vandalia is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. Nationally, Vandalia ranks above 52% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 52th percentile.

How Vandalia compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.085g, short-period spectral response 0.158g, 1-second spectral response 0.071g. Among 254 Ohio cities in this dataset, Vandalia ranks 24 for seismic hazard, the 91th percentile within the state. About 15,013 people live in Vandalia, Ohio.

What a retrofit costs in Vandalia

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.

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 Vandalia address.

More on how this number was built

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