Mount Weather
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Mount Weather is an underground U.S. government facility on the Virginia,West Virginia border that serves as a continuity-of-government relocation site. In the event of a nuclear or comparable attack on the United States, the President, Vice President, their families, the Cabinet, and Congressional leadership and their families can be evacuated to Mount Weather. A second facility of comparable function exists in Colorado.

Operational protocol

If a credible threat to the United States is identified, "like we believed there could be on 9/11", the continuity plan is executed. The President travels with the nuclear football, allowing him to authorize a launch from Mount Weather, from the Colorado facility, or from Air Force One, which is kept in the air "flying in circles someplace" during the threat period.

The "use it or lose it" launch window

Citing Annie Jacobson's book on nuclear war, Kiriakou says that under the "use it or lose it" doctrine, if satellite systems detected an incoming ICBM, the United States would have roughly ten minutes to respond before it had to assume its stationary Midwest missile silos would be destroyed and launch them regardless. He adds, again citing Jacobson, that the U.S. has only 44 interceptor missiles, based at Vandenberg and in Alaska, with roughly 40% accuracy against incoming warheads, many of which carry multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles.

Who is not on the list

The Mount Weather and Colorado evacuation lists are limited to senior government officials and their immediate families. Civilian residents of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including John Kiriakou himself, who lives approximately three miles from the White House, are not on any list. "For the rest of us, yeah. I live three miles from the White House, so I don't think I'm going to make it out."

In the event of an actual nuclear strike on Washington, the consensus assessment is that civilians in close proximity to the White House would not experience the impact: "You won't feel anything. It'll be fast."

See also

- Continuity of government
- Nuclear football
