The Blizzard of 1948-49 staggers the imagination. Actually not a single storm, but a series of storms, it began in November 1948 and continued uninterrupted into February 1949. The snow stopped trains, buried houses, and threatened millions of head of cattle in four states. This blizzard of a century, perhaps of a millennium, stands as “the Katrina” of the Great Plains.

Visit the Blizzard of 1948-49 Photo Gallery

The loss of life, of livestock, the stranding of thousands of families, the all-encompassing rescue effort, human ingenuity, the extraordinary acts of kindness, and the ways in which people came together to give generously of their time and resources to help one another are just a few of the ways in which this disaster, like Katrina, led to one of our finest hours.

In the vernacular of “war” in the post-war era “Operation Snowbound” cleared 34,000 miles of roads, and “Operation Haylift” dropped tons of hay to starving animals in a massive, perhaps desperate, effort to save livestock.

The last two weeks of January 1949 were very cold. From eight to eleven days with lows of zero or below were common throughout the blizzard area. Much of Nebraska was literally paralyzed by the storm.
By the fourth week in January, it was evident that some two million snowbound cattle and sheep in Nebraska, the Dakotas, and westward to Nevada were in jeopardy. To feed stranded livestock the Air Force launched Operation Hayride, better known as Operation Haylift, using C-45, C‑47, and C‑82 cargo planes. On the ground the Army used tracked vehicles called Weasels to bring supplies and assistance to stranded people.

In Lincoln, Governor Val Peterson learned that counties lacked the money and equipment to open roads; deep snow and drifts kept cattle from getting to feed; and, in some cases, long‑isolated rural people were exhausting food and fuel supplies.

He declared a state of emergency in all of twenty‑two counties and parts of seven counties in northern Nebraska. Under the direction of Brigadier General Guy N. Henninger, the Nebraska adjutant general, a command post for “Operation Snowbound” was set up in the basement of the capitol building.
The situation was critical. Estimates were that in the twenty‑nine counties wholly or partly in the storm emergency area, there were more than a million and a half cattle worth more than two hundred fifty million dollars (nearly two and one half billion in 2008 dollars). Civilian and military officials who made aerial inspections of the snowbound area were impressed with the seriousness of the situation. Governor Peterson got an amateur radio message from his home town of Elgin, in hard‑hit Antelope County: “My cow is hungry as hell. Please toss her a bale of hay when you go over.”

In early February, 250 Nebraska guardsmen formed eight-man “mercy teams” in several snowbound areas, and in Cherry and Thomas counties, guardsmen from Lincoln operating bulldozers and hay‑laden military trucks brought relief to some 150 ranchers, often leaving the roads or trails and following a guide on horseback.

Even before Operation Snowbound began, local and county leaders formed emergency teams to work with military and civilian agencies in directing bulldozers, deploying Weasels and aircraft, and assisting Operation Haylift flights.

Holt County, because of its large size and the severe impact of the winter, was a center of blizzard relief activity. At O’Neill, the county seat, sixty inches of snow had fallen since the November storm. Since November pilots in O’Neill and other Holt County towns had provided some links to the outside and had been transporting necessities, but increasing livestock losses were a growing worry. Around 3 A.M. on January 23, Kearney Air Force Base snowplows arrived to clear the airport road and the runway so a C-47 cargo plane could land. Winds and a plow breakdown hampered the work, but it was finished in the next few days.