Warwick's Seismic Design Category, explained

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Warwick is Category B. Low seismic hazard. Code requires basic seismic detailing (bracing, connections) but no special structural system restrictions. That puts Warwick in the 58th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 58% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Warwick by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.108g, short-period spectral response 0.196g, 1-second spectral response 0.054g. Among 8 Rhode Island cities in this dataset, Warwick ranks 7 for seismic hazard, the 14th percentile within the state. About 83,554 people live in Warwick, Rhode Island.

What a retrofit costs in Warwick

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

More on how this number was built

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