Amid new models that forecast historic amounts of snowfall beginning tomorrow, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has declared a state of emergency for the District of Columbia.

“We’re preparing for a blizzard. I’ve lived in D.C. for almost my entire life, and I don’t know that I’ve lived through a forecast like this. It is an extremely large storm,” Bowser said.

The mayor also plans to declare a snow emergency beginning tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. And she said the blizzard will be treated as a “homeland security event,” with the city activating its homeland security operations center.

But Bowser began her press conference this morning outside a large repository of salt by apologizing for the city’s response to last night’s snow—and the ensuing mess on the roads.

“I want to say to the residents of the District of Columbia that we are very sorry for our inadequate response,” Bowser said. “We believe we did not provide adequate resources at a time when it could have made a difference.”

The dusting of about 2 inches of snow, slightly more than was predicted, caught the region massively off guard. Even the president got caught up in the morass.

There were about 120 car accident calls to police last night in the District alone, according to Police Chief Cathy Lanier. She strongly advised residents to stay off the roads beginning tomorrow afternoon. But should you be on the street and get in minor collision, she said, “if there is nobody injured, if it’s a minor accident, exchange information with the driver and move the vehicles” out of the way rather than calling the police and waiting around.

When the snow emergency in D.C. begins tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., all cars on snow routes will be towed. “Don’t even park on evacuation routes tonight,” Bowser recommended.

The mayor also reiterated the dangers of being on the road when the storm hits, which is forecast for 4 p.m. tomorrow. “Unless you absolutely have to be out tomorrow afternoon, residents should get home as soon as possible,” she said.

D.C. Public Schools, which were already scheduled for an early dismissal, will have a snow day (the administration recommended the same for public charter schools). “We decided to be extremely cautious in that if the snow start time changes we don’t want our kids and the buses to be on the roads,” Bowser said.

The city government will close at noon tomorrow, except for essential personnel. All D.C. Public Library locations will be closed beginning at noon tomorrow, and they will remain closed on Saturday.

With predictions for sustained winds, District leaders and Pepco are also preparing for the possibility of power outages.

“The biggest cause of outages is trees, especially those already weakened by other storms. Outages can also occur from drivers crashing into utility poles, so drive carefully,” Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey tells DCist.

There will be one warming center open in each ward, the locations of which can be found on snow.dc.gov.

Pepco’s executive vice president for power delivery, Dave Velazquez, said they have over 550 field personnel that are “ready to go.” Pepco is also in the process of opening up an emergency center and requesting help from other utilities up and down the east coast. “If you see a downed wire don’t go near it, assume it is energized, and give us a call. If you have an outage give us a call,” he advised residents.

After the mess, Bowser said, “we expect Sunday to be a major, major cleanup day. it could go into Monday.”

In the meantime, leaders are advising Washingtonians to be prepared. “Don’t take this storm for granted. This is a major storm,” Lanier said.

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