A place where the top brass of the country are whisked away in an event where great danger is perceived --- we all thought of this as fiction, stuff which movies and books are made of until recently when one of USA’s best-kept secret was revealed, Mount Weather exists!

Located in a 564-acre, high-security federal government facility along the Loudoun-Clarke County border in Virginia, the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Centre is the site of America’s secret sanctuary for the country’s highest level civilian and military officials in case of a national emergency. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security runs and uses it the centre of operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The facility and the organizations working in it play a key role in U.S. continuity of government plans.

The entire facility is sitting on the Blue Ridge Mountains with access to the operations center available via State Route 601 (also called Blueridge Mountain Road) in Bluemont, Virginia. The facility is located near Berryville, 48 miles (77 km) from Washington, D.C.

Mount Weather will not just be a temporary shelter for people in case of emergency. It is equipped with its own security system, has its own system including an Emergency Broadcasting System, police, fire and communications facilities which includes a hospital, crematorium, dining and recreation areas, sleeping quarters, reservoirs of drinking and cooling water, an emergency power plant, and a radio and television studio. It basically runs under its own laws. Mount Weather also houses the 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.

The site was originally opened as a weather station in the late 1800s with just two permanent buildings which still stand today. Other modern buildings were supplemented as the facility grows. The secret facilities, particularly the underground part and secret installations, were built during the cold war and were completed in 1958.