Nuke DC! What next?

[WilyBadger]

So something, somehow, goes horribly wrong and Washington, DC, is blasted off the map. After all the dust settles, both litterally and figuratively, what's the next US capital?

My guess'd be Phillidelphia. It's where our country got it's start. What's everyone else's opinions?

[luakel]

If it's after 9/11, I'd say NYC.

[Max Sinister]

Finding places for all the government stuff must be an organizational nightmare. Why don't they repeat Washnington, Brasilia and Canberra again and create a completely new capital? Jules Verne once suggested a Centropolis as capital for the US, in Kansas or so.

[EvolvedSaurian]

NYC, LA or someplace in Texas.

ES

[Darkest]

What could do that?

Some terrorists steal plutonium from a nuclear laboratory in a high-class heist. They get a rogue 'brilliant' scientist within the USA, that has all home equipment to build a Hiroshima grade nuke.

Would a Hiroshima nuke do it?

[Wendell]

Parkersburg, West Virginia, or the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, also in West Virginia.

[Umbral]

I think it depends on what caused the explosion. The overwhelming priority will be to avoid that happening again.

I.e. if it was a hostile act, defensiveness will be a priority, etc.

[Tom Veil]

Well, without knowing why DC 'sploded, I'll say Arlington, VA. There are more government offices there than anywhere outside of DC.

[Thande]

Which begs the question: does the US have plans for the order of priority for alternative seats of government? (Answer is probably, but they're classified). In the UK for example, if London is destroyed, government rule is automatically transferred to Edinburgh (if it's a one-off disaster/strike), or the TURNSTILE bunker complex near the Cotswolds (if it's a full blown MAD).

[CalBear]

I would expect that the whole Virginia/Maryland area would be a bit discombobulated if D.C. got nuked. My vote is for the Denver area. Central location, lots of Regional Federal offices in place, close to NORAD (just in case the nukes fall again).

BTW: Shouldn't we worry about who blew the Capitol up before we decide where to put the next bullseye?

[Dave Howery]

wouldn't the US want to do the same thing as with DC? Carve out a piece of territory somewhere to be a separate federal entity, free of obligation to any state? They could do this about anywhere they want, but I imagine they'd want to choose someplace with access to road and phone nets easily....

[Arachnid]

I think NYC, LA or Texas would piss off to many people, Centrepolis Kansas would be inoffensive. After the temporary capital of NORAD a purpose built capital would be built in the middle of the US, or even depending on the cleanlinss of the nuke DC.

[WilyBadger]

I never really thought about what might have gotten rid of DC, but let's say it was a terrorist attack, and that now it's five years later. A temporary capital of Mount Weather (or whatever), had been used, but now it's time to set up a more permanent location. What do we pick?

[Wendell]

Originally Posted by WilyBadger

I never really thought about what might have gotten rid of DC, but let's say it was a terrorist attack, and that now it's five years later. A temporary capital of Mount Weather (or whatever), had been used, but now it's time to set up a more permanent location. What do we pick?

I am sticking by my prior locales.

[Electric Monk]

Originally Posted by Thande

Which begs the question: does the US have plans for the order of priority for alternative seats of government? (Answer is probably, but they're classified). In the UK for example, if London is destroyed, government rule is automatically transferred to Edinburgh (if it's a one-off disaster/strike), or the TURNSTILE bunker complex near the Cotswolds (if it's a full blown MAD).

Edited selection from: http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18984

The Federal Relocation Arc, a system of ninety-six shelters for specific U.S. Government agencies, sweeps through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. A duplicate of the Pentagon is located at a site called Raven Rock in Maryland. The administrative center of the whole system, and the place where the top civilians would go, is Mount Weather.


Directly From: http://www.metropolismag.com/html/co...01/ob/ob7.html

But things have changed since Kennedy's day, notes defense policy analyst John Pike. With the cessation of the Cold War, places like Mount Weather have seen their budgets cut; the Federal Reserve's bunker in Culpepper, Virginia--would-be home to the postapocalyptic economy--now belongs to the Library of Congress. Now that anyone with Internet access can sneak a glimpse of Mount Weather or Area 51 via satellite imagery, many view such secret redoubts as strategically obsolete, like hulking mainframe computers in an age of distributed networks. The planning now, Pike says, is "much more focused on things like an anthrax attack on the Washington Metro subway system rather than an 11,000 megaton lay-down general nuclear exchange.



As for the capital I'm echoing Denver. It's central, and well protected. You have NORAD at Peterson Airforce Base, you have Cheyenne Mountain on it's big ass springs for a bunker, space command, half a dozen military bases... etc.

Metro Denver office space also a 15 odd percent vacancy rate. And has 1.2 million square feet under construction. So the Government could probably do ok if had to wait for permanent buildings.