Normandie, France (October 1989) (submitted by Christophe; added on 8/20/2000)
I come from Normandie, a place where it is often windy. It was in October 1989 I think (I was 17) and weather forecast announced a severe windstorm in the next 24 hours and recommended not to take its car or even to go out for any reason. They were right. Awfully high speed winds devastated the landscape. The wind blowed so hard that the house walls where I lived shaked. So we took a look at the outside (through a small window) and surprisingly (It was the first time I saw that) everything was flying away like in tornadoes. We could even not open the entrance door because It would have been impossible to close it afterword. One unforgettable thing is the "whistle" of the wind like a train approaching near your house.

Midwest United States (1930s) (submitted by Anonymous; added on 8/20/2000)
In the early 1900s, settlers in the Midwest United States began to farm the fertile lands. The area soon became one of the world’s largest wheat production areas, giving it the nicknamed "the bread basket of America." However, beginning in the 1930s, excessive heat and drought began to dry up the earth. Domesticated animals ate the vegetation in the area so that soil was no longer anchored down. Winds soon began to blow the topsoil away. In 1934, the first great dust storm struck. Violent winds carried away the loose top layer of earth and took away over 300 million tons to the East Coast. The dust storms became so frequent and bad that it was soon impossible to farm the land, which was now nicknamed the Dust Bowl. Thousands of farmers lost crops and money and migrated west toward California to look for work.