FBI, FEMA Move Some Jobs Outside 'Blast Zone'

The FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are moving jobs to the Shenandoah Valley - a picturesque locale that happens to be just outside Washington's "blast zone." In the event of a nuclear explosion in the capital, Winchester's location about 70 miles from Washington would put it outside the fallout zone, often estimated at 50 miles. At the same time, employees could easily travel to Washington when they need to. The FBI chose Winchester, a city of 26,000, over other places of similar distance from Washington for a big centralized archive that by 2009 will employ at least 1,200 people, many of them now working in Washington and Baltimore. Some employees already are working in a temporary center outside Winchester. Meanwhile, FEMA has chosen a farm just outside town for an operations center that will employ 700 people. Local officials say it will include positions moved from Mount Weather, the government's hilltop emergency center on the border of Loudoun and Clarke counties. The trend is happening elsewhere in the region as well. Outside Martinsburg, W.Va., the Coast Guard is building a National Maritime Center, a 200-person office currently in Arlington County. In Washington County, Md., near Hagerstown, the government is redeveloping the vacant Fort Ritchie to house national-security jobs.
Federal officials defended the moves, "For any government agency looking at a new facility in this day and age, of course, security is going to be a priority," FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said.