knowing this is pretty much picking a fight with them. as the ferry steams to the peninsula, the elderly neighbors reflect on their homeland and the cost of a war that never truly ended. reporter: it s okay says 83-year-old lee chung neyo, the responsibility of the soldiers to evacuate them. the ferry back on the mainland, family awaits. take care, says lee. take care. as we told you, this military exercise is set to get underway between north and south korea, really has people up in arm there s and frightened because they believe this is designed to, quote, start a war. let s go to the u.n. and cnn s richard roth who is standing by at an emergency meeting there. richard, can the security council keep up like this, keep this from happening? reporter: i doubt it.
absolute control. the hope is that the north korean government doesn t see military action as their means to do that. barbara starr, cnn, washington. barbara, thank you very much. south korea s yeonpyeong island is a military outpost just a few miles from north korea. the north hit it with a barrage of deadly artillery last month. south korean residents have started evacuating in case the north strikes again. reporter: carrying what they can, yeonpyeong villagers head to what they believe is the last ferry off the island. flanked by armed, military personnel, evacuees boarded, carrying children. and helping the elderly. i m leaving because they say the drills are tomorrow, says 66-year-old kim ok jin. she does not want to leave.
this is i story. people in a small minute minute community and what happens when they receive unexpected gifts from someone they ve always known as being tight with his money. boy hoopard of kare has this wonderful christmas story. reporter: there are people in big cities. who would consider this harsh, unwelcoming country. people who wouldn t give a nickel to live in leroy, minnesota, who wouldn t pay the quarter they charge for coffee at the leroy senior citizens center. and if they take a cookie, that s another quarter. reporter: people who need to pull up a chair and listen. my god, we ve never had this kind of money. reporter: as eileen tells the story of smalltown values and a check. we didn t know what to do, 20,000. reporter: the envelope arrived from the estate of
check was followed by two more. $100,000 each. my god. look at this. reporter: up until then, the seniors had been getting by on what the county gave their center, $600 a year. we got $220,000, total. reporter: and loren wasn t done. he loved this church. reporter: loren willed roughly $1 million to st. patrick s catholic church. then, he revealed a streak. he left the presbyterians $100,000, too. we re looking at the steel rope we put on the church, thanks to loren. reporter: the same amount, was delivered to the bethany bible church. and the lutherans. who used the gift to repair their bell tower. we were notified business hi attorney. reporter: that pumper truck? plans are to replace it with a new one, thanks to the $220,000
94-year-old loren kruger, a retired farmer who had seen his share of sadness, having lost his first wife, second, lost his only child, a teenaged son to cancer but long before he passed away last year, loren gained a reputation. very frugal. watched his penny. very frugal. he was very careful with his money. apparently so. for as he humbly lived out his days in this white frame house on main street, loren quietly amassed a fortune. we held on to it for awhile. reporter: the first $20,000 check was followed by two more, $100,000 each. said my god, look at this! look at this! reporter: up to then, the seniors had been getting by on what the county gave their center, $600 a year. all together what did we get?