The humanitarian operation continued until 16 November, when another typhoon--Kate--threatened to make matters even worse. The weather on the storm’s periphery forced the cancellation of many Marine flights but the center of the disturbance passed about 200 miles south of Da Nang. The flooding which resulted from the two back-to-back storms, however, demanded a rescue effort beyond the capabilities of the Marine and VNAF helicopter units located in I Corps. Accordingly, the Special Landing Force (SLF) of the U.S. Seventh Fleet joined the operations on 17 November. Lieutenant Colonel Curtis’ HMM-162, the helicopter element of the SLF, returned to its former operations area and spent six days rescuing flood victims. The Marines evacuated the most seriously injured to the USS _Princeton_ where they received emergency treatment before being returned to civilian hospitals. When the SLF departed Vietnamese waters on 23 November, HMM-162’s helicopters had flown over 600 hours and completed 1,020 sorties in support of the disaster relief operations. Unfortunately, one UH-34D was lost at sea in an operational accident on 21 November while participating in these operations. Two crewmen, Corporal Richard D. Slack, Jr. and Lance Corporal David Nipper, died in the crash.[12-4] With the SLF’s departure, the Marine task element and the VNAF 217th Squadron reassumed the full burden of rescue operations until they were finally terminated on 10 December. During this period HMM-365 was forced to divide its flights judiciously between combat support and missions of mercy.[12-C] [12-C] The magnitude of the damage inflicted upon the inhabitants of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Quang Tin Provinces by the November storms is borne out by the following statistics. In these three provinces over 50,600 houses were destroyed while 4,870 civilians were reported either dead or missing. Another 12,240 Vietnamese were forced to seek refuge at government centers in the wake of the flood. (CTU 79.3.5 ComdD, 17Oct64–14Jan65.) _Changes and Improvements_