- BERRYVILLE, Va. - While most government employees enjoyed a day off yesterday,
Harold Aldrich and his teams on this secluded mountain stood on alert,
preparing for the worst.
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- Publicly, officials of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency say that the Mount Weather facility, about 70 miles west
of Washington in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is responsible for monitoring
potential natural or man-made disasters and preparing responses for them.
The real story, though, is in the details: Mount Weather's most important
function is preparing for the worst disasters, those that threaten the
top levels of the government.
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- Buried beneath the manicured lawns and
turn-of-the-century buildings of the sensitive complex is a 200,000-square-foot
bunker designed to protect the president, the nine members of the Supreme
Court, and other high-ranking officials during a national crisis, such
as a nuclear attack on Washington.
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- Aldrich, who has worked for the government
''in the same capacity'' since 1969, will talk only about his unclassified
responsibilities.
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- He oversees hundreds of men and women
at Mount Weather (officially known as FEMA's National Emergency Coordination
Center) who handle the logistics of the agency's response to disasters,
answer telephone banks for affected areas, and notify the proper FEMA officials
and federal agencies.
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- ''We really have a dedicated bunch of
people, and they really give their all,'' he said one recent morning. ''And
I don't hear any griping about having to work on Christmas.''
-
- Although Aldrich won't talk about the
top-secret aspects of his job, FEMA spokeswoman Mary Margaret Walker acknowledged
that ''there are some security issues'' involving Mount Weather.
-
- During the Cold War, it was designated
as the primary emergency relocation center for top government officials
if the Soviet Union launched a nuclear strike on Washington.
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- It is reportedly one of 96 ''continuity
of government'' installations within the Federal Arc, an area within a
300-mile radius of Washington. Most were designed or built during the Eisenhower
administration to prevent the Soviets from using a nuclear attack to ''decapitate''
the nation's leadership from the rest of the government and the rest of
the country.
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- The Army Corps of Engineers helped build
these facilities, from the Federal Reserve bunker at Mount Pony in Culpeper,
Va., to the so-called Underground Pentagon within Raven Rock Mountain,
located just north of Thurmont, Md., the home of the presidential retreat
Camp David.
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- Mount Weather is still surrounded by
10-foot fences with six layers of barbed wire. Helipads and guard towers
can be seen from Route 601, a winding mountain road that runs through the
above-ground portions of the compound. Guards are heavily armed, and a
sign at the front gate warns the curious that the facility is off-limits
to the public, by order of the secretary of defense.
-
- Unseen to the passersby are the giant
metal doors that lead into the bunker, a virtually self-contained facility
that can house around 200 people for about a month. The installation has
a cafeteria, hospital, sewage-treatment plant, television studio, command
center, reservoirs, office buildings, and private apartments. It even has
its own crematorium.
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- According to news accounts, Mount Weather
would be used to house top federal officials after a nuclear attack. From
here, they would direct any retaliation and, presumably, the rebuilding
of what's left of the nation. It would also be used if any type of chemical
or biological attack or civil unrest threatened the government.
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- ''Due to the nature of the facility,
we all have to have a national security clearance, but I'd rather not talk
about that,'' said Clyde W. ''Butch'' Stinedruf, a 14-year FEMA employee
who is a ''team chief'' for Aldrich in the emergency-warning unit of the
operations center. Stinedruf is a former military officer who used to spend
his holidays aboard the national airborne command post, a ''flying White
House'' in a Boeing 747.
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- He leads one of four teams responsible
for notifying officials of potential and actual disasters. He stressed
the importance of maintaining operations at facilities such as Mount Weather,
even for its unclassified functions, during the holidays.
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- Since adding more unclassified functions
to Mount Weather's responsibilities in the early 1990s, FEMA officials
have praised the teams there for the job they have done responding to needy
citizens. ''We handle all types of emergencies,'' said Stinedruf. ''If
you have a tropical depression coming off the coast of Africa, and it looks
like it could be developing into something, we start tracking it and notify
the hurricane response team.''
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- Disasters, Stinedruf added, don't take
off for the holidays.
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- This story ran on page A03 of the Boston
Globe on 12/26/98. © Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
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