The Emergency Family Assistance Center at the Marine Corps Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan, seen here Aug. 8, 2023, provides access to counseling, loans and other assistance after Typhoon Khanun. (Frank Andrews/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A crisis assistance center for Marines and their families who have financial or counseling needs following Typhoon Khanun, which twice battered Okinawa in the past week, is open for business.
The Emergency Family Assistance Center, in the Behavioral Health and Family Advocacy building since noon Monday, by Tuesday had received about a dozen visitors, said assistance center coordinator Terry Burmester outside the center Tuesday.
The crisis center is one stop for disaster relief, including grief and trauma counseling and chaplain, loan and legal services. The center, across the street from the Foster Community Center, opened under orders from Marine Corps Installations Pacific commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Liszewski, Burmester said.
Damage claims are being processed at a separate processing center launched Tuesday morning at the base’s legal assistance office, 1st Lt. Richard Bochicchio, claims center officer-in-charge, said by phone Tuesday. That office has received over 100 emails seeking help.
Except for the handful of staff, the assistance center, tucked away behind buildings and trees, was mostly empty Tuesday. Only 10 people stopped by for services on Monday, Burmester said.
The III Marine Expeditionary Force posted an announcement Monday about the family assistance center on its Facebook page.
“It’s been quiet,” Allan Obace, the center’s volunteer program manager, said Tuesday. “In the words of the [commanding general] yesterday, if we had a lot of people, it would be good, but then it would mean that a lot of people are in crisis.”
The center is open to anyone with base access, Burmester said.
Navy Seaman Apprentice Sequoia Baker, a corpsman assigned to Foster, experienced no damage during the storm, but witnessed minor flooding and saw cars that had been struck by branches. He works at Branch Medical Clinic Evans across the street from the emergency assistance center.
“I think it should be advertised more,” he said outside the commissary Tuesday. “I didn’t know about it until I saw it.”
The Marines will decide Tuesday evening whether to keep the center open, Capt. Brett Dornhege-Lazaroff, spokesman for the III MEF, said at the center Tuesday.
