Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 3, 2007
DENVER, Jan. 2 (AP) — National Guard helicopters dropped emergency food bundles and bales of hay for people and livestock trapped by snowdrifts as high as rooftops on Tuesday after back-to-back blizzards paralyzed the Plains.
At least a dozen deaths were attributed to a weekend storm that knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of people in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and left herds of cattle without food or water.
Because of rising temperatures, many highways were clear, but many rural roads remained impassable, and members of the National Guard used Humvees and snowmobiles to reach people trapped in their homes and take them to shelters.
Colorado also began a haylift in hopes of saving thousands of cattle immobilized by drifts as high as 10 feet. In 1997, a similar storm killed 30,000 cattle in the state.
“Most of my cattle haven’t seen food since last Thursday, when the snow started,” said Tony Hall, who has 200 head on a ranch near Lamar, Colo. “Wherever they were standing when the snow piled up, that’s where they are now. Every day, it’s getting more crucial.”
Colorado and Kansas were trying to find enough helicopters capable of hauling hay bales weighing up to 1,300 pounds, said Don Ament, Colorado’s agriculture director. Many helicopters in the state’s National Guard fleet are in the Middle East.
Two Huey helicopters and three Black Hawk helicopters dropped 400 bales of hay Tuesday to feed cattle in the hardest-hit areas, Colorado officials said.
National Guard helicopters in the state also dropped military rations just outside people’s houses so they could reach the bundles, Sgt. First Class Steve Segin said.
January 3, 2007
DENVER, Jan. 2 (AP) — National Guard helicopters dropped emergency food bundles and bales of hay for people and livestock trapped by snowdrifts as high as rooftops on Tuesday after back-to-back blizzards paralyzed the Plains.
At least a dozen deaths were attributed to a weekend storm that knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of people in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and left herds of cattle without food or water.
Because of rising temperatures, many highways were clear, but many rural roads remained impassable, and members of the National Guard used Humvees and snowmobiles to reach people trapped in their homes and take them to shelters.
Colorado also began a haylift in hopes of saving thousands of cattle immobilized by drifts as high as 10 feet. In 1997, a similar storm killed 30,000 cattle in the state.
“Most of my cattle haven’t seen food since last Thursday, when the snow started,” said Tony Hall, who has 200 head on a ranch near Lamar, Colo. “Wherever they were standing when the snow piled up, that’s where they are now. Every day, it’s getting more crucial.”
Colorado and Kansas were trying to find enough helicopters capable of hauling hay bales weighing up to 1,300 pounds, said Don Ament, Colorado’s agriculture director. Many helicopters in the state’s National Guard fleet are in the Middle East.
Two Huey helicopters and three Black Hawk helicopters dropped 400 bales of hay Tuesday to feed cattle in the hardest-hit areas, Colorado officials said.
National Guard helicopters in the state also dropped military rations just outside people’s houses so they could reach the bundles, Sgt. First Class Steve Segin said.