South Koreans await help after U.S. helicopter damages their homes

[unhappycamper]

Pyeongtaek resident Kim Si-nam says his house was left uninhabitable after a U.S. Army helicopter kicked up strong wind gusts, blowing off part of his roof. Kim lives next to Camp Humphreys.


South Koreans await help after U.S. helicopter damages their homes
By Franklin Fisher and Hwang Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, February 28, 2009

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — Residents whose homes took a thrashing from air gusts thrown down by a big helicopter outside the U.S. Army’s Camp Humphreys appealed Thursday for quick help from the U.S. military in getting them into shelter and repairing their homes.

"If they are our real ‘neighbor’ as they claim, they should take immediate measures," said Lee Soon-gyu, head of Songhwa-ri, a village of about 60 households and 300 people just outside the perimeter of Camp Humphreys, which is in Pyeongtaek. Many of the residents are aging rice farmers.

An Army spokesman said Thursday the U.S. military is taking serious steps to help those residents affected.

The blast of air from the helicopter’s beating rotors cut through the village like a buzz saw Wednesday, ripping at roofs, fences, walls, doors, windows, pottery and other objects of domestic life, according to residents.

The incident occurred around 12:15 p.m. as the CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter was leaving Camp Humphreys with a piece of excavation equipment slung underneath.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61013