<P> This catastrophe intensified the economic impact of the Great Depression in the region . </P> <P> In 1935, many families were forced to leave their farms and travel to other areas seeking work because of the drought (which at that time had already lasted four years). The abandonment of homesteads and financial ruin resulting from catastrophic topsoil loss led to widespread hunger and poverty . Dust Bowl conditions fomented an exodus of the displaced from Texas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains to adjacent regions . More than 500,000 Americans were left homeless . Over 350 houses had to be torn down after one storm alone . The severe drought and dust storms had left many homeless; others had their mortgages foreclosed by banks, or felt they had no choice but to abandon their farms in search of work . Many Americans migrated west looking for work . Parents packed up "jalopies" with their families and a few personal belongings, and headed west in search of work . Some residents of the Plains, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma, fell ill and died of dust pneumonia or malnutrition . </P> <P> The Dust Bowl exodus was the largest migration in American history within a short period of time . Between 1930 and 1940, approximately 3.5 million people moved out of the Plains states; of those, it is unknown how many moved to California . In just over a year, over 86,000 people migrated to California . This number is more than the number of migrants to that area during the 1849 Gold Rush . Migrants abandoned farms in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, but were often generally referred to as "Okies", "Arkies", or "Texies". Terms such as "Okies" and "Arkies" came to be known in the 1930s as the standard terms for those who had lost everything and were struggling the most during the Great Depression . </P> <P> Not all migrants traveled long distances; some simply went to the next town or county . So many families left their farms and were on the move that the proportion between migrants and residents was nearly equal in the Great Plains states . </P>

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