Snow: RAF Helicopter Sent To Aid Farmers

The military is drafted in to help families stranded by the snow, as forecasters predict more freezing conditions ahead.

最近一周，英国全境遭遇严寒天气，不仅给人们的生活工作带来麻烦，也使北爱尔兰地区畜牧业受到影响，牛羊大量死亡，农户损失惨重。英国军方为此出动军用飞机，为农户提供救援。据悉，英国皇家空军的支努干直升机和侦察用直升机在26日已经开始了空投行动。在当地官员的指引下，支努干直升机把人们急需的药品、食品以及牲畜所需的干草捆空投到一些居民点。国防部发言人说，第一次行动空投了4捆干草，是400只羊一天的食用量。空投行动将继续进行下去。

Touching down(降落) on a mercy mission, the military came to the aid of desperate farmers. Bags of animal feed were transported to RAF Aldergrove (now named Joint Helicopter Command Flying Station Aldergrove a Royal Air Force station situated 18 miles, or 29 km, northwest of Belfast. It adjoined Belfast International Airport, sometimes referred to simply as Aldergrove which is the name of the surrounding area. The station shared the Aldergrove runways but had its own separate facilities and helipad) to be loaded onto a Chinook. Support from the sky, a huge relief to those managing the crisis on the ground.

We’ve been working with the local councils, and working with Red Cross, and other agencies just to identify people in need who have been cut off because of the snow and we’ve been trying to get emergency provisions to them just to take them over until they can get access for their homes.

On the Glens of Antrim, thousands of sheep lied dead and buried beneath the snow. Thousands more have been left stranded without access to food. They are now fighting for survival. On the more isolated farms we’ve visited this week the air drop couldn’t come quickly enough.

It means that our animals are getting fed first and foremost like we traipsed yesterday half a mile with a tot bag of hay to just to try and get the sheep we have and out of farm and to see an elderly aunt and we are, we are just, you don't want to get out in the morning now so you don't for, it's just everyday is worse than the day before.

The plight of the farmers has resulted in an unlikely alliance between the British Army and Irish Republicans. There is a Sinn Fin Minister in charge of farming in Northern Ireland.

If your livelihood, indeed your life is tied up in the farm, looking after sheep and lambs, it's a heart-rendering situation. So I think it is good to see that there will be that support, so glad am I to see that support but I'll make no comment about the Sinn Fin bringing the British Army into Northern Ireland.

From this vantage point you get some sense of the scale of problem here: Nine glens(峡谷) covering 70,600 suqare hectares. A helicopter is the only option.

So five days after the snow fell, help has finally reached the most remote regions - some hope at last for the sheep farmers whose flocks are starving to death.

David Blevins, Sky News, near Glenar.