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submitted 1 year ago by sunnie@sopuli.xyz to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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[-] kyle@lemm.ee 51 points 1 year ago

So much static electricity built up between the ground and airborne dust that blue flames leaped from barbed wire fences and well-wishers shaking hands could generate a spark so powerful it could knock them to the ground. Since static electricity could short out engines and car radios, motorists driving through dust storms dragged chains from behind their automobiles to ground their cars.

[-] Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de 23 points 1 year ago

OP over here leaving out the part where cities had rabbit clubbing parties! Wtf lol

If the dust storms that turned daylight to darkness weren’t apocalyptic enough, seemingly biblical plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers descended on the Plains and destroyed whatever meager crops could grow. To combat the hundreds of thousands of jackrabbits that overran the Dust Bowl states in 1935, some towns staged “rabbit drives” in which townsmen corralled the jackrabbits in pens and smashed them to death with clubs and baseball bats.