The point of nuking Abilene?

I haven't seen the film, but some buddies who have seen say this is never really explained. As a native Texan, I find it strange that anyone would waste millions of dollars on a nuke that was aimed for Abilene, Texas. The state has alot of big cities with massive recourses and economies, like Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Laredo, or Arlington. Abilene has like 90,000 max with all combined suburbs and sits in the middle of nowhere and the only thing it has is ACU, McMurry State, and Hardin-Simmons. The other town that was nuked (I think Witchita Falls but could be wrong) is even smaller with fewer recourses. What's the point? That'd be like nuking Sonoma, California instead of Los Angeles, San Fran, or Sacramento.