U. S. A. DUST STORMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 March 1935, Page 7

U. S. A. DUST STORMS

LARGE AREA COVERED EXTRAORDINARY EFFECTS ■' ■-n [BY CAbIe —PRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT.] _ KANSAS CITY. March 21. ' The middle West has been in the grip of continuous dust storms since the beginning of this week. To-day the whole area finds the situation exceptionally serious, as the repetition of last year’s drought is threatened. The dust' storm area to-day extended from Texas north to north and south Dakota, and from Oklahoma to the State of Illinois. Hundreds of thousands of acres of fine wheat lands are being x all but denuded by the storms, and other areas are covered with such a layer of dust as to stifle the plant life, thereon) In the State of Missouri, the housewives and the municipalities could only await the settling of the. dust before starting the seemingly hopeless task of cleaning the homes and streets, none of which has escaped the dust. The dust has been as fluid as the air which bore it. It has penetrated everywhere and coated furniture and made breathing difficult. In Western Kansas persons became lost in this continuous night. Schools there were closed. The highways were blocked by the Kansas Highway Patrol,- in order to’ avoid accidents. The train schedules*, were interrupted ‘anti aeroplanes were kept on the ground. / Today, the sun shone palely. Automobile headlights in the dust gleamed in weirdly bln© and green hues. All colours were either intensified or distorted. Hundreds oL hospital patients gulped air through, wet cloths. Postmen went on their rounds with masks over their faces. Merchants stripped their display windows, shut their doors and swathed their counter with protective sheets. Housewives packed their pictures, linen and household furnishings away. ,'

One farmer wandered in circles, and he became lost in his ten-acre field, until he fell exhausted. Neighbours found him.

The dust brought a dull headache to many, and sleeping was difficult. Hundreds of people, wrapped in wet sheets, arose to find themselves like mummies in shrouds of mud. So dense was the dust pall at Chicago to-day that two aeroplanes hovered over the municipal airport' for over an hour before the pilots found a rift through which to land.