Dust Storm In The 1930s – Understanding A Disaster

I live in an area not generally affected by drought. So when I talk to students about the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s they understand it in concept, but have never thought about what it actually meant. Dust, to those of us who do not live in arid areas, is an annoyance but not a major life challenge. So a “dust storm” seems like a fairly non-threatening  phenomena.

Dust Storm –   A Picture Worth 1,000 Words

A dust storm can move at speeds up to 70 miles an hour and can be up to 10,000 feet high. They can be miles long. In extreme cases, such as the giant Australian Dust Storm of 2009, they can actually be over 2,000 miles long! So to understand what farmers in Oklahoma and Kansas and across the Great Plains saw in the 1930s, picture this.You walk out of your home, look up at the sky and see a wall of dust several times taller than the Empire State building coming toward you faster than you are allowed to drive on an expressway. It would be very dark out, because the dust would block out the sun and noon would look like midnight. You cannot outrun it and you cannot get around it because it might be several miles long. 

Notice the height of the storm compared to the houses. (Click here to see time lapse photography of a gigantic dust storm hitting Phoenix in 2014). Because the dust moves so quickly and is being driven with so much force, it can get through almost any clothing and through any wall or door that allows any air in.

Dust Storm – 1930s

After the dust storm finished battering your town, you would have many problems. Numerous outbreaks of diseases, from meningitis to the mysterious Golf War Syndrome to strep throat, have been linked to dust storms. During the 1930s, farmers would have to shovel the dust into enormous piles to try and save their crops.

South Dakota Dust Storm

The massive exodus of farmers from the middle of the United States to California was one of the most important demographic changes in American history. Known as “Exodusters” they built California into one of the most important agricultural and manufacturing areas in the world. Woody Guthrie wrote this famous song to express how the people in Oklahoma said goodbye after the Dust Storms hit:

I’ve sung this song, but I’ll sing it again,
Of the place that I lived on the wild windy plains,
In the month called April, county called Gray,
And here’s what all of the people there say:

CHORUS: So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
And I got to be driftin’ along.

A dust storm hit, an’ it hit like thunder;
It dusted us over, an’ it covered us under;
Blocked out the traffic an’ blocked out the sun,
Straight for home all the people did run,
Singin’:

CHORUS

We talked of the end of the world, and then
We’d sing a song an’ then sing it again.
We’d sit for an hour an’ not say a word,
And then these words would be heard:

CHORUS

Sweethearts sat in the dark and sparked,
They hugged and kissed in that dusty old dark.
They sighed and cried, hugged and kissed,
Instead of marriage, they talked like this:
“Honey…”

CHORUS

Now, the telephone rang, an’ it jumped off the wall,
That was the preacher, a-makin’ his call.
He said, “Kind friend, this may the end;
An’ you got your last chance of salvation of sin!”

The churches was jammed, and the churches was packed,
An’ that dusty old dust storm blowed so black.
Preacher could not read a word of his text,
An’ he folded his specs, an’ he took up collection,
Said:

So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
And I got to be driftin’ along.

Arizona Dust Storm 2014