Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
At the peak of the Dust Bowl, dust settled over nearly three-quarters of the
United States. An estimated 100 million acres were destroyed or debilitated
to varying degrees. h e residents of the Great Plains could tell where the dust
originated by its color: red dust came from eastern Oklahoma, yellow-orange
dust from Texas, and black dust from Kansas (see i gure 11).
black sunday
April 14, 1935, is remembered as Black Sunday, when a particularly bad dust
storm blew in from the north. In Kansas, the day started out sunny, clear,
and windless—a brief hiatus from the dusty clouds that had blown through
the region regularly the previous four years. Lulled by this seemingly quies-
cent day, the Kansas residents began removing the sheets that covered their
windows—opening them up to let in the rare fresh air. h ey walked outside
without their usual protective aids: goggles, homemade sponge-masks over
their mouths, petroleum jelly in their nostrils. h is spring day seemed to be
a turning point—a new start. As the day wore on, however, people spotted
enormous black clouds moving in from the north, and some momentarily
thought a rainstorm was headed their way. But they soon learned that these
were not ordinary storm clouds, dark with water: these clouds were black-
ened by silt and sand.
A towering wall of earth, 2,000 feet high and 200 miles wide, soon plunged
them into darkness. So thick and dense was the dust that people could not see
their own hands in front of them, or their house just a few feet away. Many
were blinded and suf ocated as the wind blew dust into their eyes and lungs.
h e cold, turbulent winds moved south at 80 miles per hour, entraining soil
and dirt and throwing it alot as it traveled across South Dakota and into
Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and the Texas panhandle.
At er years of breathing dust, residents of the Great Plains suf ered respira-
tory ailments such as sinusitis, laryngitis, bronchitis, and even pneumonia
and tuberculosis. Children and the elderly suf ered severe chronic coughing
and chest pain, shortness of breath, and nausea. Although the Red Cross
opened emergency hospitals to help deal with this medical crisis, impassable
roads covered with dust drit s made it impossible for many people to reach
them.
As the Great Plains became increasingly uninhabitable throughout the
1930s, many residents were forced to leave. Banks foreclosed the homes and
