Oklahoma Cattle Herd Swept Down Stream by Flood Water
A herd cattle in southeastern Oklahoma was swept from a flooded pasture into a quickly flowing creek under a bridge and all of the action was caught on video.
The video captured by storm chaser Alex Spahn was shared on Twitter and Facebook after more than 13 inches of rain fell in the Fittstown, Oklahoma area.
In the caption Spahn says “Terrible! I just watched a herd of cattle get swept away under a bridge in floodwaters.”
The original Twitter post by Spahn incorrectly said the flooding was at “Fittsville” which doesn’t exist. He later mentioned in a tweet that he had incorrectly typed the name and the location was in fact Fittstown, which is 90 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.
In a subsequent post Spahn was unable to give any details about what happened to the herd of what appears to be both cows and calves.
News reports have indicated that a number of cattle were saved and Spahn even said he was in contact with the owners with the following quote from the producers.
“We've managed to get over 1/2 (the cattle) to a good place, brought an airboat over and we been swimming/pushing cattle, still some in belly deep water that we couldn’t get to. Still don’t have a good count and missing calves but doing way better than I was thinking.”
The video has a combined 600,000 views on Facebook and Twitter as of Sept. 24.
In the past seven days torrential rain fall has brought 15.8 inches of moisture to the Fittstown area, according to Mesonet.
