Mount Weather: The US Government’s Emergency Hideout

it's 2044 and somebody's finally done it after months of saber rattling weeks of deployment of elite cybernetic Soldiers the front lines and days of breathless speculation as one side or another comes close to the brink somebody somewhere hit the big red button and now the whole world is about to change very quickly in Washington DC Panic Rises the social order breaks down and before long the city devolves into pandemonium there could be just minutes just mere moments before apocalypse hits and when humanity is faced with its sudden final Crescendo hardly anybody knows how to respond except for them across the city motorcades of black SUVs and the occasional armored limousine Dart through the landscape traveling at break neck speed with little regard what stands in their way they aren't panicked they're focused they have a destination and if this truly is the end of how things used to be then nothing is more important now than getting them to their destination if apocalypse has struck then they're headed for Mount weather where the US government goes to [Music] survive today's video is brought to you by the one and the only manscape.com the ultimate destination for all things grooming and hygiene look over 10 million men have trusted manscaped one of them is me there's 9, 999,999 other people out there who've also done it which is fantastic basically manscaped is all about keeping your family jewels in tiptop shape and speaking of keeping things in tip top shape the star of the show the laurar 5.0 Ultra it's got next Generation blades they are longer they are wider they've got rounded teeth which will cut through hair like butter but not through other parts of you which is nice because where this thing shaves it's a little bit sensitive isn't it it's got skin safe technology that's what they call it to keep you uh comfortable and and not bloody plus there's a foil blade that goes on top so you got basically two trimmers for the price of one plus features like a 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through the low valleys and you may or may not find something you personally consider to be almost heaven but ask again when a category 5 hurricane Bears down on the city when a massive terror attack devastates the capital or oh when the world is on the brink of nuclear war and this little stretch of the blue Ridge Mountain starts to look like the best place on Earth sitting partway down State Route 601 not far from the towns of pelville and berville you'll find a facility called the mount weather Emergency Operations Center also known as The High Point Special facility in its primary role it's home to a control station for FEMA the Federal Emergency Management agency they're the people who take over in the United States in the event of a major natural disaster or other large scale catastrophe at man weather femur operates a high frequency radio system where most Public Safety agencies in the US plus the US military are able to cross communicate with the leadership of most of America states which already is a pretty impressive feat by itself but M weather also serves a dual purpose one that is most of the time functionally dormant femus control station occupies the majority of a 200,000 square foot multiple building facility a ground level spaed across a site totaling 434 Acres but underground the facility is is much much bigger what exactly it looks like below the surface is unknown and we'll get into why that is in just a moment but what we do know according to America's Center for land use interpretation is that Mount weather's underground facilities include somewhere between 6 and 700,000 Square ft of underground space according to them that space comprises quote the main relocation sites for the highest level civilian military officials and what is called seemingly interchangeably the continuity of government and the continuity of operations plan put in simple terms Mount weather is where the who's who of America's essential Personnel will end up if all hell breaks loose at a moment's notice the president The Joint Chiefs of Staff and all of America's top level officials who the country absolutely cannot function without will be making the trip to Blue Ridge Mountains very quickly should they have a need to now the site wasn't always meant to be a secret Armageddon bunker when it was first built it belonged to the national weather bureau where it was used for a few relatively idle years to launch balloons and cut from that rather humdrum work it would pass into the control of the Bureau of mines in 1936 to play a role that was equally unlikely to get anybody particularly interested specifically to be a test bed for new mining techniques which the government would use to borrow just long enough that they could confirm the techniques worked and then sign a bit of paperwork to authorize its use during World War II the site didn't play much of a role at all just functioning as the host spot for a civilian Public Service facility for conscientious objectors who had been drafted but were unwilling to work on the the front lines known in those years as Camp 144 the site passed through the wartime years with all the relative obsolesence that it had done in the decades prior but that all changed in 1954 during the early years of the Cold War while Humanity was still a waking up to the sheer scope of the nightmare that was mutually assured destruction for those of our years who are a bit less nuclear inclines we'll summarize briefly here America had a lot of nuclear weapons and planned on getting a whole lot more the Soviet Union also a lot of nuclear weapons and plans on getting lots more as well the Americans and the Soviets really didn't like each other and both sides feared that the other would declare war so they basically vowed that if nuclear weapons were used against them they'd also use nuclear weapons in return it's the Strategic equivalence if I'm going down you're coming down with me what that meant for the US governments around this time was that planners and strategists now had to start thinking about the moment after the end of the world once nuclear weapons were well on their way to devastate the global population what would America or anyone else do in the aftermath after all even at this time there were few people convinced that the entire US population would be wiped out there would be a broken civilization left in the aftermath and amidst the fallouts there would have to be some degree of American government that remained and if the Soviets were really so intent on Conquering the world as many American political leaders believed then there would have to be people after the apocalypse who could Leverage What remained of the military and defend the United States from from a prospective Soviet invasion the answer was to build a bunker an impenetrable underground Behemoth that could get a nuclear bomb dropped on top of it and still be just fine underneath and fortunately for the US government they knew from their pri mining operations that the Bedrock under mount weather was actually pretty ideal in 1954 the Bureau of Mines began construction on a facility codenamed operation High Point with the Army Corps of Engineers eventually taking over the project which racked up costs of over a billion dollars when adjusted for today's inflation consisted of the construction of a maze of tunnels and Atrium points with roofs that are reinforced with a total of about 21,000 iron bolts those bolts each Drive 8 to 10 ft into the Bedrock above making them exceptionally sturdy the entrance secured behind a guillotine gate comprised a massive blast door 10 ft tall 20 ft wide 5 ft thick and 34 tons back in those days it took a full 10 to 15 minutes to open or close it although any updates since are that's yet unknown [Music] it probably shouldn't be much of a surprise for a facility this secretive that the inard of M weather are basically unknown their modern updates especially are way outside the realm of public knowledge and fair enough not only are the specifics of M weather of ultimate importance to ensure America's survival but even the country's own population will be far too busy dealing with swirling CES of radiation to even think about Mount weather in the events that it would have to serve its ultimate purpose that being said we do know at least some of what's inside the facility is said to include both a hospital and a crematorium both of which are critical to maintaining health and hygienic conditions in a closed space built for long-term survival to that same end it includes a sewage treatment plant on site it includes areas for dining and Recreation ample sleeping quarters a radio and television Studio that's able to function via America's emergency broadcasting system a range of Office Buildings and Reserve systems to provide water and electricity according to public intelligence . net the site also includes a quote computer complex for directing emergency simulations and operations throughout the contingency impact analysis system scus and the resource Interruption monitoring system or rims both of those systems are meant to assist in large scale emergency planning and Disaster Response 2,000 sleepy gots are said to be present in sight although only the president their cabinet members and the Supreme Court are afforded private quarters to sleep whether that information remains accurate in the 2020s we cannot say but certainly space would be at a premium in any closed environment of this kind over the course of its history Mount weather has been partially activated a few times but activated full scale only once that was in 1965 when a major electrical blackout left some 30 million people without electricity for the better part of half a day when a transmission line failed near Niagara Falls and led to a cascading effect by then it had already been prepped to assume governmental Powers after the onew punch of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of JFK in 1974 the previously secret facility was exposed to the public by accident when Transworld Airlines flight 514 crashed on a wooded Hillside near the facility killing all 92 passengers and crew and inadvertently revealing the existence of the base said the Associated Press when announcing the crash quote the plane impacted about 1 and a half miles from an underground complex that reportedly is resigned to serve as a headquarters for high government officials in the event of nuclear war a federal spokesperson would acknowledge only that the facility is operated by the little known office of preparedness whose responsibilities he said include continuity of government in time of national disaster end quote the incident revealed Mount weather's existence not just to the American public but most of us Congress as well where even in hearings after the fact top American Military Chiefs would refused to provide detailed testimony on what exactly was going on inside mount weather in the years since then Mount weather has been kicked into partial activity a few times including during the 9/11 attacks in 2001 during which time the Washington Post reported that most Congressional leaders have been evacuated there by helicopter it was also the target of an apparent program by the National Gallery of Art from 1979 to 1981 which specified a mechanism for Mount weather to receive and protect highly valuable paintings in the event of a global catastrophe that provided enough advanced warning to make the transfer in time whether vangar and Picasso will remain at the top of America's nuclear apocalypse priority list today we have no idea further details about the inner working of Mount weather are as yet still obscured from the public the facility is a topic where leaks are exceptionally rare and no one who's had the responsibility of working inside has ever come forward to offer testimony as to what's inside that said people do allegedly work inside including a skeleton crew of somewhere between 75 to 100 workers living and working inside the facility for rotations of up to several months per the cent of for land use interpretation those workers are briefed daily on security threats facing the nation and it's on them to keep Mount weather ready to switch into crisis mode and take over if the worst really does happen since 9/11 those workers are alleged to have maintained a constant state of Readiness at the facility nor is Mount Weather the only facility of its kind at least not across the United States during the Cold War America's contingency plan for a nuclear exchange involved not just one bunker but three now weather in Northern Virginia would account for the president the leaders of Congress the Supreme Court The Joint Chiefs and other shall we say Washington DC people another bunker in the Blue Ridge Mountains Raven Rock is located near the line dividing Pennsylvania and Maryland and it was intended to host the command and control elements of each branch of the US military then way out in Colorado there was the shy Mountain Complex headquartering the North American Aerospace Defense command or NORAD the United States Northern command or us northcom the US space command and a lot of other very important elements for America's Continental defense CH mountain is built to withstand a high altitude electromagnetic pulse or EMP and survive the explosion of a 30 Megaton nuclear warhead as close as 1.2 Mi away together those three complexes were at one time meant to be the heart of America's plan for continuity of government it's unclear whether this Trio still reflects America's plans for a modern-day National crisis but Mount weather and whatever other facilities do still exist will almost certainly be linked in some way in order to ensure that they can communicate with each other and coordinate a national plan of survival even after the rest of the country is dissolved in its day-to-day operations Mount weather is still a rather active location it hosts six major disaster operations facilities for thema including among others the disaster Finance office the agency Logistics Center and the disaster Personnel Operations Division all of which might sound quite innocuous but end up being really rather important when it's time to save lives in the wake of a catastrophe during fous operations across the US Mound weather is often a decision-making nerve center and a conduit for support to be relayed across femur operations around the country it also hosts a processing service center to help people who are impacted by major or minor disasters getting survivors set up with the knowledge and resources they need to start on their way toward recovery although I'll below the surface that small advanced crew is still believed to work around the clock to keep Mount weather ready never knowing when what we can only assume is a bright red telephone is going to ring and announce that planet Earth is in its endgame so everything that we've discussed thus far about Mount weather fits rather neatly into two categories what we know and what we think we know now though oh we can come to the third category ree what we can deduce about Mount weather and the elements of contingency and crisis planning that almost certainly surround it of course we'll be the first to admit that these sorts of speculation almost certainly won't hit 100% accuracy but it is worth doing nonetheless and painting at least a hazy picture of what this facility might be capable of if it ever does need to assume its ultimate role before we get into this last section we do have to emphasize again that mount weather could also be used in the event of national disaster terror attack or other catastrophes that are shall we say survivable but today we're going to talk about the nuclear option most important here are the systems that would allow Mount weather to survive a nuclear apocalypse according to one 2023 analysis by MIT Professor Max tmar working with an interdisciplinary team to simulate a modern-day large scale nuclear war a nuclear Apocalypse in the 2020s would see one side launching a strike and the other side launching a retaliation before the first wave even begins to impact with us and Russian ballistic missiles ravaging each other's territory Within minutes of the War's starting point with those strikes would come massive electromagnetic pulses frying the US power grid and any electronic devices that haven't been hardened to such emps America's Commander control systems and its nuclear launch facilities would likely be prime targets with all that come three key priorities for Mount weather surviving the nuclear strikes themselves conducting damage assessments to learn just how devastating an adversary strikes were and just a bunch of America's defense apparatus is left and keeping up communications with other secure bunkers and surviving assets elsewhere as for how M weather accomplishes those tasks well we suspect that's probably at the top of the list of things the people in charge of America's contingency plans would like to keep a secret but what does seem likely is that the facility will be equipped with hardened electronics that can survive EMP blasts as well as mechanisms to maintain continual Communications with satellites for Global surveillance while know American Military assets around the world are not likely to avoid nuclear attack the man weather facility may have a means to remain in contact with American ballistic missile submarines and operate the complex highly involved systems necessary to relay messages to them under the sea the complex may also have mechanisms to attempt to relay messages to the American public as it's known to have had these in decades past although how such messages would be transmitted after most public issue electronics are fried is a bit of a mystery it would host systems that would allow Mount weather to communicate with Allied Nations or even adversaries and it may have some mechanism to directly coordinate second round strikes on an adversary either using whatever nuclear weapons remain nor by attacking elements Like Satellites that would give that adversary Nation the same capabilities America has via Mount weather and its broader network of bunkers finally the complex is likely to have some sort of mechanism in place to deal with decontamination for people arriving at the bunker after they might have been exposed to radiation an outcome that's altogether too likely given just how fast a nuclear exchange can happen equally important is the process of determining just who should get a ticket to mount weather if the worst does come to pass while on the surface that might seem like a relatively easy equation to solve the more important you are the higher a priority you become to get the call but the real process just isn't that simple just as one example most of the 535 members of US Congress are expected not to be chosen as survivors in Mount weather and even for those who are most of their AIDS aren't likely to be brought along the reason for this is rather simple while a given person might be America's brightest mind when it comes to let's say the intricacies of the social security system which is itself a quarter of America's entire peacetime spending that person's immense knowledge and expertise are Irrelevant in the case that America's leadership needs to survive inside a bunker far more important would be taking the cot water and food reserves that might have gone to that Social Security expert and giving them to say a Communications officer who doesn't know nearly as much but can keep the mount weather facility in communication with the US government's other critical bunkers across the country the president's press secretary is probably being left behind to face the nuclear apocalypse while the National Security advisor and the chief of staff might each get to bring a handful of AIDS along M weather does have a press room and the capability to host journalists but that's likely to be an element more meant for use of the facility in response to let's say a massive but survivable hurricane or a major earthquake if the US government intends to weather a nuclear war that will destroy Communications infrastructure Nationwide and cause the collapse of American civilization then journalists will become considerably less important to keep around finally there's one last element to consider making it to Mount weather at all with any luck a large scale nuclear exchange would be precipitated by a major warning sign perhaps the use of tactical nuclear warheads on a battlefield or a public vow of nuclear attack or a rapidly devolving diplomatic crisis but in the event of a true surprise attack one that doesn't leave enough time to transfer critical Personnel to mount weather before an attack kicks off then simply making it to the facility becomes a Mad Dash although the US has other bunker facilities at its disposal including underneath the White House it's unclear whether those facilities are enough to enable the long-term survival of the American Administration if the worst happens according to a quick search on Google Maps a trip to mount weather involves a road journey of about 61 miles and while that's a distance that motorcades could probably cover rather quickly if they don't have to worry about traffic laws they'll also have to make that Journey along routes that even we in the public domain can calculate with a reasonable degree of certainty far be from us though to claim that there's no Ultra secret underground maglev or hyper Lube that can f the president to mount weather in the span of 3 to 5 minutes but we certainly don't know of one what that means is that targeting the route from Washington DC to mount weather would be of ultimate importance for Any Nation trying to launch a large scale nuclear attack on America far more important than targeting major cities and population centers is targeting command and control taking out the decision makers in Washington and across the American defense apparatus in order to leave the country paralyzed for a brief moment of time a series of minutes measured in the 10 at best the presidents of the United States of America the vice presidents the leaders of Congress the presidential cabinet the Supreme Court The Joint Chiefs of Staff and many of the critical Minds that America considers utterly indispensable for its survival will all be on one of just a few stretches of road that lead from Washington DC to the Blue Ridge Mountains we can only speculate but we must speculate that of all the territory of the United States of America it will be those few hundred square miles that catch the absolute worst of a nuclear apocalypse those who survive the journey will preside over what remains of a shattered Nation but whether or not they survive will be of ultimate importance to whoever has chosen to bring America to its knees and it's here that we find the true nature of Mount weather a bunker that may not be so secret anymore but is nonetheless absolutely critical to America's survival of course we hear Mega projects remain very invested in the idea of there not being a nuclear apocalypse anytime soon but if there is it's Mount Weather that may become the most important place in America after the absolute worst comes to pass [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 398,306

Keywords: mount weather, the mysterious mount weather, emergencies, mountains, weather, us secrets, mount, us army, america's doomsday plan, army, hidden, bunker, america, doom, doomsday, apocalypse

Id: 73luMCpUxI8

Length: 22min 18sec (1338 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2024