I just saw a show on PBS "The Dust Bowl" a Ken Burns production. If you don't know about the dust bowl it happened during the 1930s while the depression was going on. There was a huge drought in the Southern Plains centered in the panhandle region of Oklahoma. It extended into the 4 states adjacent. During that time there were sand storms over and over and over. Some of them covered a width of 200 miles (320 km) and a mile (1.6 km) high. At their height they moved clear across the country and 300 miles off shore into the Atlantic. This kept up for something like 7 years. The area, which had been a major wheat growing area, became in effect a desert. But most of the people stayed there and toughed it out. Because that was home. This in spite of no income, dust pneumonia (caused by constant inhalation of dust) and all the other miseries of living in that climate. That is kind of like the people that want to stay near their homes after Sandy. People just naturally want to stick to home.
Bill Gill
