Humongous clouds of dust doomed numbers of people in blackness. No way to escape, people were surrounded. Dust was getting everywhere: in their mouth, eyes, nose making it hard to breathe. It had entered houses through any minor cracks. The dust was even in food people ate and it was impossible to get rid of. People were in despair. “Now the wind grew strong and hard and it worked at the rain crust in the corn fields. Little by little the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and carried away. The wind grew stronger. The rain crust broke and the dust lifted up out of the fields and drove gray plumes into the air like sluggish smoke. The corn threshed the wind and made a dry, rushing sound. The finest dust did not settle back to earth now, but disappeared into the darkening sky. … The people came out of their houses and smelled the hot stinging air and covered their noses from it. And the children came out of the houses, but they did not run or shout as they would have done after a rain. Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move often. And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men – to feel whether this time the men would break.”- John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath (1939)” Dust has ruined lives of people, physically and mentally, it had touched the economy as well. Who caused this tremendous catastrophe? People did. Now they had to do what it takes to get rid of fatal effects of the dust bowl.
The disaster was ecological, economical, social, and cultural. The disaster was caused by the combination of environmental and human factors. It lasted ten years. Disaster caused people change their farming ways, leave their homes and suffer. This terrible disaster lasted ten years, and got its name from Associated Press reporter who called it dust bowl on news “Three little words achingly familiar on the Western farmer’s tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – if it rains.”
The climate was an important cause of the dust bowl. The climate of the Great Plain’s region is dry and windy; winds reached the speed of 60mph. Scientists believed that drought which caused the dust bowl to take place occurred because it happened same time as La Nina event in the Pacific Ocean. Cold sea surface temperatures reduced the amount of moisture entering the jet stream and directed it south to U.S., were it hit The Great Plains. The only thing that kept the soil on place is its vegetation, which is thick grass that doesn’t need much water. The land of Great Plains had experienced drought from 1931 to 1937 which turned out to be much worse then it would because of human interference. In 1800s railroads were built throughout the United States. In 1862 government promised free land to anyone who moved to the prairie for five years. Free land was a good reason for a move, while the railroads aided the migration. They planted crop and farmed. Between 1909 and 1932 more then 30 million acres of land were plowed. It seemed like a huge profit for the farmers to plow so much land, yet they ignored one moment, that the land those years lost its main protection, the grass. All plowing they did turned crucial causing the black blizzards. In 1920s people came up with new, fast, and effective ways of getting crops, they had new equipment and the work was much more efficient. Most of farmers couldn’t afford such expensive technology, so they rented it and worked harder in order to pay for the rent and still get some profit. In late 1920s national economy went into decline, so this had encouraged farmers to work harder. In 1930 farmers of Southern Plains planted a lot of wheat, plowing the land which should not be plowed. The region wasn’t set for the European- style agriculture; it was called The Great American Desert. The ground was abused. Droughts followed and nothing would grow, instead the plowed land went dry and titanic winds have blown this ground away creating enormous cloud of pitch black dust covering the skies, harming people, making living dangerous and extremely difficult. In 1931 was the record wheat crop, which sent the wheat prices to the minimum which asked for more effort of farmers who needed to meet the required equipment and farm payments. In 1931 the winds begin to blow creating “black blizzards”. In 1932 the number of dust storms increases dramatically to fourteen, next year rose up to thirty two.
