17 Oct 2011

Dust Bowl Nightmare in Lubbock

Kevin Helmer, who I met this past April during a Storychasers "Celebrate Texas Voices" workshop in Lubbock, Texas, tweeted me the following 3 photos tonight of the dust storm today (Monday, October 17, 2011) in Lubbock.

 

 

 

I lived in Lubbock from 1975 to 1978, and from 1993 to 2006. In the 1970s there were some bad dust storms, but I don't remember anything like this. I've heard the drought in West Texas this year is as bad as it was in the 1930s, and these photographs seem to confirm that. Images painted with the words of Timothy Egan in his incredible book, "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl," come to mind seeing these photos.

For all those living in West Texas and other parts of the American Southwest during this time of crazy weather: Hang in there. Better days surely lie ahead. 

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