Airboat heroics
Heroes don’t always wear capes; sometimes it’s jeans, t-shirt, a ball cap and hip waders. As floodwaters overtook homes, businesses and farming operations in Mills and Fremont County in March, several Red Oak area men swept into action; using their airboats to save livestock, pets and people.
“When I purchased my airboat, I never thought in a million years, I’d use it like that,” said Delaine Paul of Red Oak.
Paul explained the saga unfolded when he and friends, Scott Wilson, Jordon Huff, and Dennis Bailey decided they needed to help out a friend.
“There are several hog confinements, south of Highway 2 in Fremont County, in between the Loess Hills and Interstate 29, which were under water. The confinement supervisor, Jason Sickles, had no way to check the hogs. He asked if I could bring my boat over and see what they had for damage,” Paul said. “On my way over the next morning, he called and said one of his employees was stuck on a high spot and I needed to step on it. When I pulled up on old 2, there were DNR officers, a deputy sheriff and numerous other people there.”
Paul said he was told that shortly before he arrived, a family with a home on the bottom had been evacuating when a levee broke and water started pouring in on all sides. Despite being in a boat, it had an outboard motor and with conditions they way they were, they were stranded.
“A set of railroads tracks that were acting as a levee blew out so his road out is now gone and ice cold water was blasting through there. These people were stuck and now it’s pouring rain on top of everything else. It was like boating in a washing machine. As I’m getting ready to go, Jason said he was coming with me.”
In addition to river water pouring in from numerous directions and pouring rain, Paul described debris in the water was everywhere with areas of land still untouched by the water and central pivot irrigation systems, which added to concerns.
“To avoid the irrigation system, I had to drive on an asphalt road about a quarter of a mile with no water on it, but then we got back in the water. We’re hightailing it thought this field and all of a sudden Jason starts pointing and yelling at me where they people were,” Paul recalled. “They were probably a mile and a half off Highway 2. They were terrified. I think they thought they were going to die.”
After the family was taken to safety, Paul returned and picked up Sickels and the original stranded hog confinement employee to safety. In the amount of time Sickels was off the boat, the water had risen two feet, said Paul.
“We then received word we had to get out because a levee further north had ruptured and we still had yet to check the five hog sites, which consists of six barns and roughly 55,000 hogs. We headed toward a different road to get in a different way but we couldn’t; it was too dangerous.”
With the hog confinements still needing to be checked, Paul made a few calls to his friends who had airboats to meet up the next day.
“We ended up with five boats that day going to all the barns, checking them. Not one barn had gotten water into it, because they’re each built on a mound due to the high water table. We did shut off all the generators so there was no risk of electrocution and checked the feed,” Paul said.
Paul said only one of the barns lost power and that was about three days before the hogs were removed from the premises.
With no land access to the hog confinements, the issue of how to get feed to the livestock became a concern. The first thought was use of a helicopter but it was only able to make three trips in an hour and haul 600 pounds of feed per trip. The National Guard offered to use a Chinook to transport in a feed trailer, but there was no dry land available to set it on. That’s when Sickels came up with the idea to use the airboats. Eleven-tons of bagged hog feed was delivered to the confinements the first day. The group would end up transporting 80 tons of feed in six days.
In addition to hog feed, Paul said they hauled confinement owners and employees, electricians, local, state and federal officials and anyone else who need to get through the flooded area.
“We hauled a lot of people and we had no idea who they were,” Paul said. “I have never seen the county and state work together so well with private individuals; they were wonderful to deal with.”
Also assisting were David Ferryman and Jesse Lane, who took turns piloting one of Wilson’s two boats used during the event. Dan Slaughter and Mitch Kunze also volunteered to help, said Paul.
“We all sustained damage to our boats from railroad ties, trees, barbed wire fences … It was two to three miles round trip. Any boat driver who said they weren’t scared at one point is lying.”
Each trip was two to three miles round trip through areas, which were once roads and fields, and after two weeks, everyone was physically and emotionally exhausted.
After the confinements were assessable by land again, the airboats were no longer needed. The confinement owner compensated everyone for their time and for the damages sustained to the boats.
An animal lover, Paul also used his boat in Pacific Junction during the March flood to rescue pets.
“It was unreal. I’m just glad we were able to help.”