Back in the 1930s, a major drought hit the United States, causing farmland to dry up to the point where there was only dirt in the place of once healthy crops.

The loose soil contributed to terrible dust storms, which helped give a name to the devastation.

The “Dust Bowl” has since become synonymous with the Great Depression and a time in human history when farmers and their families were forced to flee their homes in search of a better life.

The poverty and suffering that followed seems an entirely foreign concept in the 21st century, even after a terrible recession.

However, as a one of the worst droughts in California’s modern history grips the state, some fear that it could be a terrifying deja vu scenario.

A modern-day Dust Bowl : California farmers feel desperate and abandoned http://t.co/KTUQ4w4yOh pic.twitter.com/jVrWdZVQhr

— Hotpage (@HotpageInfo) August 5, 2014

In the 1930s, there was no help for farmers, no choice but to move on. Today, many California farmers feel that same sense of hopelessness and abandonment. It’s as if no one cares about the consequences of the wasting away of billions of dollars worth of crops.

Farmer Shawn Stevenson even went so far as to make his point known via a plastic banner hung atop a water tower:

“NO WATER. NO TREES. NO JOBS. NO FOOD.”

It’s unfortunately a point that Americans in the West and beyond may not get until it is far too late.

California's horrible drought has gotten worse: http://t.co/phxYXqkBck pic.twitter.com/hlSJ9iYMcD

— Slate (@Slate) August 3, 2014

California’s Central Valley is said to provide food for half the country. The depleting Colorado River is also used to provide drinking water to millions of Americans.

It seems that not enough people are connecting the dots: California and surrounding states are inching closer and closer towards disaster.

Only this catastrophe could be worse than the infamous Dust Bowl.

As farmers scramble to use whatever methods are available to save as many crops as possible, others are left to wonder what can be done to prevent this seemingly inevitable chain of events.

Image via YouTube