| Millions of Washington DC area residents could flee to the Mountain State if terrorists strike the nation's capitol.
West Virginia's Secretary of Military Affairs and Public Safety says the second multi-state mass evacuation conference just held at Snowshoe will help the situation.
Homeland security representatives from seven other states attended.
Secretary James Spears says highways crowded with evacuees would slow down everything in the Mountain State.
The conference also brought to light again that government couldn't prepare for such a homeland security incident.
"Government can't do this alone and not one government can do it alone. Again we have to do it on a regional basis, but we also have to look at the private sector, the non-profit organizations," said Spears.
He says, "What we can do is recognize the problem, recognize the issues associated with the problems and then take as many steps as we can to resolve those."
Gilmer County is one of ten counties that will be a target for a mass exodus from Washington DC, according to officials.
Those counties will develop a plan to deal with an estimated exodus of 800,000 to one million people who are predicted to head to the Mountain State.
Some government officials and terrorist watchers are predicting a strike on Washington, again.
Many evacuees would come to the state on Corridor H or Route 33.
Officials say that's just one of the many scenarios.
The high risk counties, in addition to Gilmer, are Barbour, Braxton, Lewis, Tucker, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur and Webster.
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