ALBUQUERQUE, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Thousands of residents of the U.S. Plains states dug out from a second major winter storm Tuesday as emergency crews searched for stranded people and animals.
As many as 200,000 head of cattle were isolated without food or water on snow-covered pasture in southeastern Colorado, where back-to-back holiday storms left 15-foot-deep drifts. The Colorado Division of Emergency Management said Civil Air Patrol spotters in light planes were searching for stranded people and animals.
Several motorists were airlifted to safety by helicopters and snowmobiles were taking hay to animals in six counties to avoid a repeat of the blizzard of 1997, when 30,000 cattle died of starvation costing ranchers an estimated $28 million, the Rocky Mountain News said.
"We are pretty close to having found everyone but we are worried about the livestock," a state official said.
The four-day storm paralyzed ground travel in Colorado, New Mexico and parts of Kansas. Northwest New Mexico received more than 30 inches of snow and nine elk hunters were rescued from an isolated cabin by a crew using a bulldozer.
