Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 7
Communication Breakdown
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Separated Traffic
Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Procedure
Sector 32 was placed in a highly dangerous and unsafe situation. I was training a D-side and had to jump in and take over; the sector was overloaded with traffic and extremely complex and warranted a CPC; [Certified Professional Controller] D-side and an L-side. There was moderate to extreme precipitation in Bay 2 and TMU [Traffic Management Unit] decided to route their traffic through our sector with little to no restrictions. We were working three flows of PHL arrivals with no in trail spacing. One flow from Bay 6; one from ZTL; and one from sector 36. Blending these three flows in to one with aircraft deviating was proving to be very difficult and complex. We were also working two flows of DCA's and BWI's with no restrictions. We were told that there would only be 2 or 3; but we ended up being overloaded. We had coordinated that aircraft to enter the sector level at FL250 and in trail; but we were getting multiple flows with aircraft descending from high altitudes. During this time we were also dealing with a massive departure push; moderate chop/turbulence and frequency congestion.There were 45+ aircraft in the EDST [En Route Decision Support Tool]; and the sector was alerted red and overloaded;however we were receiving no help from TMU. At one point an L-side had to plug in because the sector was getting out of hand and there were so many aircraft that  it was difficult to see where aircraft were going. This was compounded by the fact that the other sectors in bay 5 were also overloaded. There needs to be better planning; and restrictions put in place to avoid overloading sectors. The strategy of pumping all traffic through a single sector/point is dangerous.
ZDC Center Controller reported the Traffic Management Unit and Management failed to help during a weather event which resulted in unsafe overloaded sectors.