Watford City, ND: what USGS's seismic model says

Under the seismic model IBC and ASCE 7 use for new construction, Watford City is Category A. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. Nationally, Watford City ranks above 11% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 11th percentile.

How Watford City compares

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.031g, short-period spectral response 0.064g, 1-second spectral response 0.024g. Among 14 North Dakota cities in this dataset, Watford City ranks 3 for seismic hazard, the 85th percentile within the state. About 6,207 people live in Watford City, North Dakota.

What a retrofit costs in Watford City

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

Earthquake insurance for a Watford City 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 Watford City address.

More on how this number was built

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