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Dust Storm
Few things
motivate politicians like impending doom.
One of the most peculiar natural phenomena to strike the Washington area
was a gigantic dust storm blowing in from the Great Plains. Years of environmental mismanagement on the Great Plains set the stage for a natural calamity.
In 1931, a drought hit the Great
Plains. Crops died and because the ground cover keeping the soil in place was
gone, the naturally windy area began whipping up dust. Dust storms became problematic and continued
to grow in intensity. In 1934 an enormous storm drove 350 tons of silt across
the Great Plains as far as the East
Coast. Ships three hundred miles off
shore in the Atlantic reported collecting dust
on their decks.
In April 1935, a dust storm arrived in Northern Virginia
from the Great Plains. A dusty gloom spread over the region and blotted out the
sun. Meanwhile, in downtown Washington ,
conservationist Hugh Hammond Bennett was testifying before Congress about the need
for soil conservation. Bennett
explained, (pointing to the darkened skies over Washington) “This, gentlemen, is what I have been talking
about.” Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act the same year.
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