When floodwater blocked the roads, hay arrived by helicopter — Transcript

Bennett narration is AI-generated; the attributed interview is original source audio.

I'm Bennett Blackwood.

Dinner came by helicopter! In March

twenty nineteen, historic flooding in Nebraska

cut off cattle at a fifth-generation

family ranch near Richland. The animals

had reached higher ground, but their

owners couldn't get feed through. So

the Nebraska National Guard turned a

Chinook helicopter into an airborne delivery

truck. On March twentieth, the crew

carried ten bales of hay to

the stranded cattle. The mission had

a name: Operation Prairie Hay Drop.

For rancher Wende Settles, reaching out

wasn't easy.

We're used to helping other people.

We're not used to having to ask for it.

Her neighbors were helping too, taking

in cattle and lending a hand.

The Guard continued delivering hay into

early April. The Guard's account says

the wider response brought feed to

more than nine hundred animals. This

is a twenty nineteen archive story,

with the original footage and rancher's

words. A reminder that when the

usual route disappears, people can find

another way to help.

Seize the day. Share the good.

Credits and original sources · Read the story