Haiti Help Is Near -- but Where to Land?

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 17, 2010 — -- With soaring hills, crumbling buildings and what little open space there is in Port-au-Prince -- now packed with the hungry and homeless -- this is not a helicopter-friendly environment.

But today ABC News was on board one of the dozens of relief flights ferrying food and especially water throughout the city. The landing zone was on a mountainside golf course between towering trees.

ABC News was met on the ground by soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division who had secured the site and kept the Haitians a good distance away.

The delivery was not large -- 18 crates of food rations, 14 of water. And this was not an area of the city where the most desperate Haitians are waiting. ABC News returned to the site later in the day with the general overseeing the operations.

Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said, "The use of helicopters in the congested areas where most of the Haitian people are in need, you're not going to be landing helicopters in those areas -- we have to pick sites as close as we can."

And for now the U.S. is delivering to only this one site, clearly one where the crowds were orderly and grateful.

It was Haitian volunteers who set up these barriers. They said to the U.S. soldiers, "I wanna help. I speak English what can I do to help distribute this aid?"

Despite the small amount of aid on each flight, there were at least 20 deliveries to the landing zone with the U.S. army providing the security.

Lt. Col. Mike Foster, of the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, who is leading army soldiers from Fort Bragg, said, "I can tell you every single interaction we have had so far has been positive. We've been well received across the board."