Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center

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Mount Weather, with the Shenandoah Valley in the background
Mount Weather, with the Shenandoah Valley in the background

The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center (or simply Mount Weather) is a "'civilian' command facility, the center of operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). ... It functions as a main relocation site for the highest level civilian and military officials, and what is called, seemingly interchangeably, the 'Continuity of Government' and the 'Continuity of Operations Plan'."[1]

"For decades . . . [ it has ] served as the main relocation site for the White House, the Supreme Court and much of the executive branch."[2] Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains,[1] access to the operations center is via "Route 601, also called Blue Ridge Mountain Road, in Bluemont, VA."[3] The underground facility within Mount Weather designated "Area B" was completed in 1959. FEMA established training facilities on the mountain's surface ("Area A") in 1979.[4] A net control station for the FEMA National Radio System (FNARS), a "High Frequency radio system connecting most federal public safety agencies and U.S. military with most of the states"[5] is located here. FNARS provides presidential access to the Emergency Alert System.[6]

The site gained wider public recognition when The Washington Post mentioned the government facility while reporting on the December 1, 1974 crash into Mount Weather of TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727 jetliner.[7]

As of 2006, FEMA has 673 civilian employees assigned to Mount Weather.[citation needed] The Department of Homeland Security operates a fire department at the site, Mount Weather Fire & Rescue Company 21. Their first due area is Mount Weather itself, but they also respond to areas of both Clarke and Loudoun Counties as Company 21 under mutual aid agreements.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Descriptions

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Please improve this article if you can (May 2008).

The term High Point Special Facility has been used synonymously to mean the emergency operations center at Mount Weather and both Mount Weather and HPSF are 48 air miles from Washington near Berryville.[2] Between 1985 and 1992, "Special Facility" was the preferred designation to describe FEMA's operations at Mount Weather, especially in unclassified listings.[8] Since Area B is the designation for the underground element within Mount Weather, size comparisons can become distorted. The surface of the FEMA complex is at least 434 acres and termed Area A - also labeled distinctly from the underground area. A training area of unspecified size is included on the surface within the 434 acres.[4] The volume size of the underground component is described as being 600,000 square feet.[2]

"On September 11, 2001, most of the congressional leadership was evacuated to [Mount Weather] . . . by helicopter."[2] In support of national preparedness, between 1979 and 1981 the National Gallery of Art developed a program to transport valuable paintings in its collection to Mount Weather via helicopter. The success of Gallery's art relocation would have depended upon adequate attack warning.[9]

[edit] In the media

  • Both Mount Weather and The Greenbrier were featured in the A&E documentary Bunkers. The documentary, which was first broadcast on October 23, 2001, features extensive interviews with engineers as well as political and intelligence analysts providing rare insights into these top-secret installations while making a comparison of The Greenbrier and Mount Weather to Saddam Hussein's control bunker buried beneath Baghdad, Iraq. The documentary features interior video of The Greenbrier as well as the Baghdad bunker, which survived direct hits from seven Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs during the Battle of Baghdad.
  • The authors of the novel Seven Days in May "referred to a shadowy facility called Mount Thunder, all but revealing its location", an intended reference to Mount Weather.[10]
  • A facility similar to Mount Weather is featured in the beginning of the 2002 film The Sum of All Fears, based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name. The fictional U.S. president is taken to the facility located inside Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland after the movie's opening sequence to rehearse emergency operation plans after a Russian nuclear attack.
  • Author William Poundstone investigated Mount Weather in his 1989 book Bigger Secrets.
  • Mount Weather was mentioned as the emergency facility in the case of a Soviet nuclear attack from Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 2000 film Thirteen Days.
  • In the final episode of The X-Files, entitled "The Truth", ex-FBI agent Fox Mulder enters the Mount Weather complex, which is controlled by a shadow government.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b The Lay of the land: The Center for Land Use Interpretation Newsletter (Culver City, CA: The Center for Land Use Interpretation): 6-7, Spring 2002, <http://www.clui.org/clui_4_1/lotl/v23/CLUI_LOTL_spring2002.pdf>. Retrieved on 3 April 2008 
  2. ^ a b c d Schwartz, Stephen I. (August 9, 2006), “Near Washington, Preparing for the Worst”, The Washington Post: A16 
  3. ^ Bedard, Paul (December 4, 2001), “Things That Go Bump In The Night At Cheney's Cave”, White House Weekly: 1 
  4. ^ a b McGrath, Gareth (January 30, 2002), “Training Site Bunker Used After Sept. 11 Terror Attacks”, Morning Star (Wilmington, NC): 1B6B 
  5. ^ Opportunities With OES ACS Program. OES Auxiliary Communications Service Homepage. Governor's (California, USA) Office of Emergency Services. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  6. ^ Merlin, Ross Z. (2004). Communications Systems for Public Health Contingencies (pdf). DHS/FEMA Wireless Program Management Team. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  7. ^ Mount Weather / High Point Special Facility (SF) / Western Virginia Office
  8. ^ Gup, Ted (December, 9, 1991), “Doomsday Hideaway”, Time: 26-30 
  9. ^ Gup, Ted (October, 10, 1992), “Grab That Leonardo!”, Time, <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976197,00.html>. Retrieved on 3 April 2008 
  10. ^ Vanderbilt, Tom; article appeared in the Comments and Features section of the printed newspaper on page 12. "Is This Bush's Secret Bunker?", The Guardian, © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008, 2006-08-28, pp. 12. Retrieved on 2008-04-02. 

[edit] References

  • A&E Productions "Modern Marvels-Bunkers" http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=75147
  • Emerson, Steven, "America's Doomsday Project," US News and World Report, 7 August 1989, pages 26-31.
  • Gup, Ted, "Doomsday Hideaway," Time, 9 December 1991, pages 26-29.
  • Gup, Ted, "The Doomsday Blueprints," Time, 10 August 1992, pages 32-39.

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 39.063° N 77.889° W

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