District of Columbia · Preparedness Guide

Washington DC is 68 square miles packed at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers — both of which flood. The District is one of the most flood-prone urban areas on the East Coast; the Anacostia in particular floods with every major rain event, affecting historically low-income neighborhoods in Wards 7 and 8. Nor'easters hit DC hard — Snowmageddon (2010) dropped 32 inches and shut down the federal government for a week. The urban heat island in a city built on reclaimed swampland makes DC summers among the most oppressive in the northeast. And DC's unique status as the nation's capital adds hazards no other city faces: government shutdowns that can leave 150,000+ federal workers without paychecks, security threats, and the complexity of overlapping federal, local, and regional emergency management systems.