Fort Jackson's Emergency Family Assistance Center began processing students from Joint Base Charleston Tuesday at the Joe E. Mann Building on post as part of the post's readiness efforts for Hurricane Florence.
Thirty-eight families from the coastline seeking shelter were processed Tuesday.
Governor Henry McMaster's forced evacuation of the city will bring at least 1,500 students, plus their Families, to post, said Danielle Hanson, Army Community Service Deployment and Stability Support Operations Specialist.
They will be serviced by "safe havens" across post as part of a memorandum of agreement.
Hanson is acting as a Family Assistance Officer during the storm. Her goal, and the goal of EFAC, is to "support military personnel and their Families to get back to normalcy."
Sixty-seven Fort Jackson staff members were hard at work in the Joe E. Mann building by Wednesday morning. The NCO club brought in lunch.
"We set up a consolidated facility of agencies to support military personnel and their Families," Hanson said.
ACS was charged with documenting incoming Navy members. Their role surrounds accountability and assessment. They make sure service members' lives get back to normal after a natural disaster.
Incoming personnel complete a Needs Assessment Survey detailing what services they will require, from medical treatment to transportation to housing.
The Directorate of Emergency Services did a weapons check on incoming sailors for compliance with Fort Jackson standards.
Veterinarian clinic representatives, too, were on site to do a microchip scan and a vaccination check on pets. "They are Family too," Hanson said. They need to be accounted for.
MEDCOM had Moncrief Army Health Clinic representatives do a health briefing.
Red Cross volunteers passed out supplies and offered support. Family readiness groups brought snacks "just to bring up morale," Hanson said.
Community Youth Services provided childcare so parents could focus on taking care of business.
"It's stressful … you're driving all this way to run away from a hurricane," Hanson said. Fort Jackson representatives want to make incoming Families as comfortable as possible.
She added that if military personnel from low country areas of South Carolina need shelter during the storm, EFAC is here to help.
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