Residents of Nebraska in the worst affected areas of its recent “bomb cyclone” have compared the damage from blizzards and flooding to the Dust Bowl that hit the Midwest in the early 20th century.

“For any one day, that probably tops the 1930s,” said Daryl Obermeyer in reference to the environmental disaster that struck the Midwest from 1931 to 1939. “In my lifetime, I’ve never seen one event affect so much of the state at one time,” said Obermeyer, a Nebraska farmer and cooperative observer for over 40 years with the U.S. National Weather Service.