SINGAPORE - Four Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) CH-47 Chinooks arrived on site at about 6.50am Singapore time on Thursday (Aug 31) to assist in the Texas Army National Guard's Hurricane Harvey disaster relief operations.
The services of the quartet of helicopters, based at the RSAF's Peace Prairie detachment in Texas, were offered to US President Donald Trump by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during their phone call on Tuesday.
Mindef said the Chinooks will contribute to the relief effort by transporting evacuees, as well as deliver equipment and supplies.
Some 34 RSAF personnel, comprising pilots, aircrew and engineers, have been deployed for the mission.
The RSAF's Peace Prairie detachment had previously worked together with the National Guard during relief efforts after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, fire-fighting and flood relief operations in Texas in 2000, as well as Hurricane Floyd relief operations in North Carolina in 1999.
Hurricane Harvey, already the biggest rainstorm in the history of the continental US, has left behind disastrous flooding and a mounting death toll reaching at least 22.
More than 1.2m of rain over four days had turned Houston - the country's fourth-largest city - into a sea of muddy brown water.
