Devastation, Chilling 'Dust Bowl' Photos

For Depression Era farmers in the early 1930s, the worst was yet to come. On April 14, 1935 a sudden storm hit the middle of the country. That infamous day came to be known later as Black Sunday. A large dust storm came rolling along the plains, gathering speed, and spreading huge black clouds over farms and towns. People had never seen anything like this before. The cloud was so thick and the sky so dark that even familiar buildings could not be found in this grand storm, which was also called the “black blizzard.” For two hours, people were stuck where they were because no one could see a thing. Crum described people who napped through part of the storm and woke up to darkness, supposing that they had gone blind so thick was the dust. Another of Case’s subjects, Irene Thompson, recalled, “They called it the Black Sunday. And some people actually thought the world was coming to an end.” Houses and cars were buried under the dust as a cloud descended on the Great Plains.