Mount Weather
From Free net encyclopedia
Current revision
Photo courtesy FEMA
The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is a U.S. government facility located in Bluemont, Virginia. It houses operations and training facilities above ground for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is rumoured to contain an underground facility designed to house key components of the American government in the case of nuclear warfare or other calamity. The site received unwanted public attention when the Washington Post mentioned an unsual government site when reporting on the December 1,1974 crash of a TWA Boeing 727 jet into the fog covered mountain.
It has been suggested that Vice President Dick Cheney has been at Mount Weather from time to time since the September 11, 2001 attacks, as it is the quintessential "secure undisclosed location."
The underground base is allegedly located inside the hollowed-out mountain and can purportedly withstand a nuclear blast. It is a central part of the American Continuity of Operations Plan, and some have suggested the base contains facilities and quarters for the Congress and White House, ready to be used in an emergency.
As of 2006, FEMA has 673 civilian employees assigned to Mount Weather, most of them in the Operations and Maintenance, Emergency Services, or Information Technology departments. Not much hard information is known about Mount Weather, and many of the stories about its operation are conflicting and vague. Some say the mountain contains an entire city, while others say it is just a simple military base. The U.S. government has revealed little about Mount Weather to date, although it has acknowledged its basic existence and stated purpose.
A similar facility was long maintained at the Greenbrier Resort.