A Flying Cowboy Rides to Rescue Cattle Stranded in Harvey’s Floods
— “I’m gonna mash ’em out.”
Ryan Ashcraft spotted some cattle loitering in standing water under a clump of trees
and came out of a long, sweeping curve in his small helicopter to drop toward a clearing so narrow it seemed the blades might give the treetops a haircut — and potentially send Mr. Ashcraft and his passenger on a one-way trip to the afterlife.
Where cattle are marooned, he flies in with John Fitzgerald, a friend
and Mr. Ashcraft’s “swimmer.” Mr. Fitzgerald jumps from the helicopter into the water to cut an opening in the fences to set the cattle free, grabs the skids and climbs back in.
“It’s just phone call after phone call,” Mr. Ashcraft said on Friday.
“If people lose all of their cattle they’d go broke and have to sell their land,” Mr. Ashcraft said.
By his own accounting, Mr. Ashcraft saved thousands of cattle and dozens of people across seven counties last week.