The Dust bowl
In 1931, a severe drought hit the midwest and south. Crops died and the depression was in its height. To make it worse, poor agricultural practices and dry ground caused the "Dust Bowl" - a series of severe windstorms that whipped through the area and darkened the skies for days.
"Black Sunday" April 14th, 1935. This was the worst dust storm of the Dust Bowl and caused extensive damage. Many people had to stop on the road and seek shelter from the storm wherever they could find.
Picture Source: http://www.weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/multimedia/dustbowl/big/dust103.gif
“The impact is like a shovelful of fine sand flung against the face... People caught in their own yards grope for the doorstep. Cars come to a standstill, for no light in the world can penetrate that swirling murk…. The nightmare is deepest during the storms. But on the occasional bright day and the usual gray day we cannot shake from it. We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming Real. The poetic uplift of spring fades into a phantom of the storied past. The nightmare is becoming life.”
-Avis D. Carlson, 1935
Results of a dust storm in Oklahoma, 1936
Picture Source: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b38290/?co=fsa