Dust Bowl Dbq

Dust storms rushed into the region in January of 1932, coating the area like snow and devastating all in its path. Farmers continued to till and seed land because they thought the drought would culminate at anytime. However, their actions had more impact on the situation as storm frequency intensified. The storms affected all inhabitants of the Great Plains, both socially and economically. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought not only to shelter affected farmers, but also to teach them how to prepare for another Dust Bowl, in case it happened again. The Dust Bowl, which devastated the Great Plains, forced the United States to revise their economic policies. For the first time, the government gained a new role, providing direct assistance

Roosevelt was viewed as a hero because of his plan, the New Deal, aimed at reversing the effects of the Dust Bowl and Depression. As soon as President Roosevelt was inaugurated, he began trying to reverse the damages caused by the Depression. Pres. Roosevelt stressed the “three Rs”, relief, recovery and reform. From then on, the government's farm policy was handled according to those three pillars. He created a plan to fulfill these “three Rs”, which was called the New Deal. It was a series of organizations and laws created by Roosevelt with the hope of repairing much of the damage from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Although the New Deal represented helpful ideals, it did not accomplish its main goal: economic repair. It even failed to “redistribute the national income”. However, the New Deal successfully established the Shelterbelt Project, which planted columns of trees along a line from North Dakota to northern Texas. The trees created obstacles in the wind's path, which caused the winds to lessen and the roots helped to prevent soil erosion. Even though the New Deal itself did not resolve the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, it led to significant economic changes that would prove useful in future

Many people outside of the Great Plains were relatively unaware of the situation going on out West; others knew but did not care. Finally, one storm reached the eastern coastal area and caught the attention of everyone. Hugh Bennett, a major soil conservation figure, described the storm saying, “This particular dust storm blotted out the sun over the nation's capital, drove grit between the teeth of New Yorkers, and scattered dust on the decks of ships 200 miles out to sea. I suspect that when people along the seaboard of the eastern United States began to taste fresh soil from the plains 2,000 miles away, many of them realized for the first time that somewhere something had gone wrong with the land.” Following the storm, Pres. Roosevelt and the government worked together to create a compilation of programs, commonly known as the alphabet administration or the New Deal, that would help farmers, industry, unemployed, and to change the government's economic