Yesterday, 29 September, the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower Commanding General sought and gained approval for a “safe haven” declaration that increases the safety and wellbeing of forces and families assigned to Fort Eisenhower. This decision came after the unfortunate confluence of loss of power and water.
MG Ryan Janovic signed the memo to support the Soldiers, Civilians and Family Members assigned to Fort Eisenhower who are currently dealing with severely degraded living conditions caused by Hurricane Helene by offering a pathway for reimbursement for expenses incurred due to relocation to “safe haven” locations. A copy of the memorandum appeared today on social media sites; we confirm it is legitimate and benefits from this additional context.
We want to emphasize the memorandum and voluntary evacuation authorization has nothing to do with any threats to safety beyond the current absence of power and water on the installation.
The memo is not a mandatory evacuation order. The Joint Travel Regulation requires such a memorandum to authorize reimbursement of certain expenses incurred by permanent party who voluntarily evacuate up to 500 miles from Fort Eisenhower.
Mission essential personnel are required to remain as the Fort Eisenhower community continues to recover; leaders in each chain of command continue to identity the persons required for mission essential operations.
While the safe haven authorization does not apply to trainees assigned to the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence’s Cyber and Signal Schools, we are examining early graduations (approximately 600 trainees) and delayed reporting of next courses so that we can best care for the men and women here training.
Finally, and related, Fort Eisenhower remains in a “emergency and mission essential personnel only” status through Wednesday. We eagerly await the ability to open the post, rescind the safe have declaration, and regather the full force of the Fort. In the meantime, the safety and well-being of the entire team remains the priority.