Whitefish's Seismic Design Category, explained

Whitefish carries Seismic Design Category D under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. High seismic hazard - this is the category most of coastal California, the Pacific Northwest, and other active fault regions fall into. Code mandates significant seismic detailing and restricts irregular structural configurations. This is the category the Brace + Bolt scope (cripple-wall bracing, foundation bolting) is built for. That puts Whitefish in the 84th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 84% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

How Whitefish compares

USGS's underlying values for Whitefish: 0.272g peak ground acceleration, 0.615g at short period, 0.191g at 1 second. Within Montana alone, Whitefish ranks 6 of 19 cities by seismic hazard - the 72th percentile in-state. Whitefish has a population of about 9,256.

Retrofit economics for Whitefish

A full earthquake retrofit typically runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally (around $7,000 typical), driven mainly by house size and foundation type, not by Montana specifically. California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant, which covers a large share of this cost, is a California-only program and does not apply in Montana.

Earthquake insurance for a Whitefish home

A Whitefish homeowner cannot buy a standalone earthquake policy in most cases - it is added to an existing homeowners policy as an endorsement, so the place to start is a regular home-insurance quote.

Where Whitefish's figures come from

Whitefish's Category D and every number above trace to USGS's own ASCE 7-16 Design Maps service - see the methodology guide. See the category explainer for what Category D does and doesn't tell you about Whitefish.