Livestock killed in floodwater at Dalby

A HEROIC Dalby local put his “life in danger” to save livestock from the Dalby floods on Sunday afternoon.

Ian Salter received a call from his friend who told him he was stranded, and his horse was drowning in the floods in a causeway between Dixon Street and Sandalwood Ave west.

“I didn’t think about it, I drove down there, looked at the floodwater,” Mr Salter said.

“It didn’t seem too bad to me and I went to start driving through to help them out and try and get the horse up.”

The water, however, was higher than Mr Salter anticipated and his car wasn’t able to make it across the water.

Turning back, Mr Salter and a few other friends kayaked out to save the horse and remove the car.

“The horse did end up dying in the process, because of the flood water, and because no one could get to him,” he said.

It was a no-brainer for Mr Salter when it came to saving the horse.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he said.

“Livestock, as you know living in a rural town, is our way of life. It is what it is and we’ve got to do our best to try and help as much as we can.”

Mr Salter’s advice to livestock owners is to act fast. He wants to see better actions taken when it comes to warning locals of the floods and their severity.

“Do whatever you can to try and save them,” he said.

“At the end of the day, when people lose their livestock they lose their livelihood. The warnings never came out until they were too late … all those horses and livestock were trapped.”