Black Sunday
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Black Sunday By Lauren Tarshis. Catherine Hatch Up was nine years old when a wave of terrifying darkness swept over her Kansas town. It was a dust storm so big and violent that would come to be known as black Sunday. Lauren Tarshis is riveting. Article explores the causes and effects of this haunting dust bowl disaster. Oh my, she cried. There's a terrible black cloud and I have no idea what it is. People saw the same black cloud for hundreds of miles. It was like a boiling mountain churning through the sky. Was it a violent thunderstorm? Was it a massive tornado? It was the biggest dust storm in U. S. History. 300,000 tons of dry soil had been swept into the sky. It formed a swirling dust cloud more than 200 miles wide. He was speeding across the land at 65 MPH. The storm was destroying everything in its path. What had caused this horrible dust storm? And what would happen to Catherine and her grandmother when it hit nature? In balance, extreme weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes are natural disasters. But the dust storm of 1935 was caused by another destructive force. Humans. How did this happen? Let's go back in time to find out. At one time, Kansas and the areas around it were mostly empty wilderness. This region is known as the Southern Plains. It includes parts of Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The land there is flat and treeless, but it was once covered by millions of acres of tall prairie grass. The prairie grasses were practically indestructible, sometimes were 6 ft tall, their roots reached down 9 ft into the earth. The hardiest grasses could hold up to the pounding hooves of running buffalo. Their roots could survive fires. Most important, the grasses could live through severe weather. The southern plains had freezing winters, roasting summers and bone dry years of drought. The natural world of the southern Plains was harsh, but nature was imbalanced. For thousands of years, the people who lived there were members of native nations like the Comanche and Kiowa. They love the prairie grasses, mostly untouched, ripping up the grass. But much of the southern plains had been transformed By the late 18 hundreds. The US government wanted to fill up the American wilderness with towns and cities and farms, they unfairly forced Native Americans from their traditional lands. They lured white settlers to the area with free or very cheap land. The new settlers arrived by the thousands. Katherine's grandfather came from Ireland around 18 90. He was eager to start farming this promising new land. But before settlers could plant crops, they had to clear the prairie grass. There. Grasses weren't indestructible. After all, farmers use plows, axes and their bare hands to rip the grasses from the earth. Within two decades, millions of acres of grassland had been turned into wheat farms, a hopeful time. The wheat farms flourished. At first, rain was plentiful. The years between 1910 and 1930 were unusually wet. Crops grew quickly. Towns, stores and churches sprouted up. It was during this hopeful time that Catherine was born. Her father grew wheat and raise cattle on a farm about 17 miles from the town of Kinsley, Kansas. Catherine was one of seven Children. She was a tomboy who dreaded girl chores like laundry and cooking. She loved riding horses and following her father out into the fields, Catherine and her siblings went to a one room schoolhouse it was three miles away from their farm. Kathryn's home was a happy one, but hard times were just ahead. A few people on the planes would be spared. Dreams turned to dust. It all began. In 1930 America faced a crisis that would become known as the Great Depression. Banks around the country ran out of money. Millions of people lost their jobs. The price of wheat fell. Farmers on the plains earned far less money for the crops. They grew on their farms. Even families like Katherine's struggle to pay their bills. But this was just the beginning. The 1932 brought another crisis. A drought. The rain simply stopped. All through that spring, the sky stayed blue. That summer brought intense heat. Crops shriveled up without the protective layer of prairie grass. Soil dried up. It was carried away by the wind. On windy days, the air would be gritty with dust. The sky would turn dirty brown. Kathryn's mother would rinse the dust coated plates before meals. She would lay a cloth across the food until everyone was ready to eat. But the dusty winds were nothing compared with the storms that came next they brought enormous clouds of dust and dirt. The clouds covered the sun and dumped piles of dust big enough to bury animals kill crops and Philip basements. A person caught in a dust storm would choke as dust rushed up their nose. The gritty wind would take what rake across their skin like millions of tiny claws. As time went on, the storms happened. More and more often, many realized that removing the prairie grass had been a terrible mistake, but nobody could agree on what to do about it. Meanwhile, life got worse and worse on the planes. Katherine's family was lucky. Money was scarce, but there was always food on the table. Many people lost everything. As the land turned to dust, so did their dreams. By 1935 tens of thousands of people left their farms. Those who stayed hoped and prayed for better times a horrific disaster. On the morning of April 14th, 1935 many thought those better times had arrived. For the first time in weeks, the blue sky wasn't swirling with dust. A sweet blue breeze blew through the air, but a horrible disaster was about to strike. Catherine went to church with her family and then to her grandmother's house. She loved days like this. Her grandmother spoiled her with freshly baked bread slathered with butter and homemade grape jelly. They were enjoying the afternoon, and then came the black cloud. It was a dust storm of enormous power and size. The 200 mile wide storm stretched 8000 ft into the sky. It raced across the earth. It was led by thousands of terrified birds and animals fleeing for their lives. The dust storm raged for hours. It was far bigger than any before I turned the sky. Black farmers staggered blindly through the fields. Cars crashed. It is unknown if any people died because of the storm. But hundreds were rushed to hospitals with dust pneumonia caused by the dust they had breathed in hardships and hope. 80 years have passed, and Catherine is now 91 years old. She can still remember the terror of the day, now known as Black Sunday, she remembers how she huddled with her grandmother and how they prayed together. I really didn't think the world was coming to an end, she recalls. But of course it did not. Catherine and her family made it through, and there was a bright side to black Sunday. The dramatic storm forced the government to admit that humans had wrecked the prairie. Now it was time for humans to fix it. In the coming years, millions of trees and prairie grasses were planted across the plains. Farmers learn how to farm in a way that was kinder to the earth. The weather shifted. By the late 19 thirties, the drought had ended. New ways of farming protected the land. There has not been a dust storm of that massive size since Black Sunday. Many people left the Plains after black Sunday, but Katherine's family stayed. She later married, had five Children and settled near the family farm. There were many hardships during the dusty days of her childhood, but Catherine learned lessons. I would always stay with her. I learned that even when things don't work out quite right, I should be thankful for everything, she says.