Does Whiteland, IN need an earthquake retrofit?

USGS's ASCE 7-16 seismic design model - the same standard building codes use - places Whiteland in Seismic Design Category C: Moderate seismic hazard. Code adds irregular-building restrictions and requires bracing of some nonstructural components (e.g. tall shelving, water heaters) in addition to structural detailing. That puts Whiteland in the 70th percentile nationally for seismic hazard - higher than 70% of the 4,875 US cities USGS was checked against here.

Whiteland by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.104g, short-period spectral response 0.201g, 1-second spectral response 0.088g. Among 126 Indiana cities in this dataset, Whiteland ranks 25 for seismic hazard, the 81th percentile within the state. About 5,511 people live in Whiteland, Indiana.

Retrofit economics for Whiteland

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

Earthquake insurance for a Whiteland 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 Whiteland address.

More on how this number was built

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