Emergency Management

We coordinate emergency management, emergency preparedness, and homeland security planning for the City of Boston.

Page Sections

Our mission is to enhance the City's capacity to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from major emergencies.

Contact

617-343-2400
send an email
85 Bragdon Street

Boston, MA 02119
United States
Office hours

Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
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Get prepared

Cold weather safety

Tips for dealing with a flood

How to make an emergency kit

Getting ready for a hurricane

2021 Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan

Sign up for emergency alerts

We're currently working to update our emergency notification system. If you want to sign up for emergency alerts through Alert Boston, please email alertboston@boston.gov

Ready Boston

ReadyBoston is a City-wide community emergency preparedness initiative.

Get yourself ready

Emergency Maps

Maps

Neighborhood emergency shelter map

See a map of the emergency shelters in the City of Boston.

Hurricane evacuation zones

View a map of the different levels of hurricane evacuation zones in the Boston area.

About our department

Working in close partnership with Boston's public safety and public health agencies, our department:

plans and prepares for emergencies
educates the public about emergency preparedness
conducts training exercises and drills, and
performs other services to support the City’s preparedness.

We follow an all-hazards approach, preparing for various types of emergencies — whether they are natural or man-made.

We also manage the Boston Emergency Operations Center, which facilitates planning and aid in the aftermath of a disaster. The center is made up of a staff of professionals and liaisons from City public safety agencies. Learn more about our work.

The City of Boston is an EMAP ( Emergency Management Accredited Program) accredited program, achieving its most recent consecutive accreditation in 2023 with previous accreditations in 2017 and 2012.

EMAP is a voluntary national accreditation process for state, territorial, and local government programs and includes a peer-review on-site assessment by a team of EMAP trained assessors. The accreditation process evaluates emergency management programs on compliance with requirements in sixteen areas, including: coordination, administration and finance, and laws and authorities; hazard identification, risk assessment and consequence analysis; hazard mitigation; prevention; operational planning and procedures; incident management; resource management, mutual aid and logistics; communications and warning; facilities; training; exercises, evaluations, and corrective actions; and emergency public information and education.