If you see emergency response vehicles zipping around town laden with folks shouting into walkie-talkies about evacuations and floods, don’t be alarmed. Today Washington area officials are running their first ever joint hurricane response exercise. Federal workers, along with their counterparts from D.C., Maryland and Virginia are gauging the region’s ability to deal with a watery disaster. While most associate hurricane-strength storms with the Gulf Coast and tropical climes, many vividly remember the destruction wrought by Hurricane Isabel in 2004 2003. She managed to uproot enormous trees and leave much of Alexandria submerged for a week. From the relatively safety of Silver Spring, I lost power for eight dark days.

The D.C. Department of Homeland Security runs a hurricane drill every year, but, surprisingly, this is the first to include officials from the area’s myriad other agencies, as well as Fairfax Water, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Pepco and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. After the seemingly interminable rains of June ’06, which caused massive flooding on the Mall and sent Rock Creek spilling over its banks, we’d say it’s about time to come up with a comprehensive plan to deal with the hundreds of thousands of residents who could be displaced by a strong storm aimed Washington.

Photo by Flickr user maxedaperture.