Mobile plants forced authorities to close a highway in both directions for hours in Washington state on New Year’s Eve

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Unlucky drivers in Washington state saw in the new year trapped under a glut of 15ft tumbleweeds, after the desiccated but mobile plants forced authorities to close a highway in both directions.

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The Washington state patrol announced via Twitter at around 6.30pm local time on New Year’s Eve that drivers on State Route 240 near West Richland should use alternative routes.

Trooper Sarah Clasen told KAPP-KVEW vehicles were trapped in a pile of tumbleweeds that were up to 15ft (4.57m) tall.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A truck trapped by a pile of tumbleweeds . Photograph: Trooper Chris Thorson/AP

The state department of transportation used snow plows to clear the scene, a process trooper Chris Thorson said took about 10 hours. The road opened again at around 4.30am, well into 2020.

Thorson said five cars and one 18-wheel semi truck were trapped. No injuries were reported.

“People were still stuck at midnight and rung in the new year trapped under the weeds,” Thorson said, adding that troopers found one abandoned car trapped in the tumbleweeds at daylight. No one was inside.

The incident was not without precedent. In California in 2018, for example, tumbleweeds shut down a whole town.

Heavy winds sent thousands of tumbleweeds into Victorville in what some residents called an invasion, the prickly intruders blanketing yards and piling up outside homes.

“It was just too much,” one resident said. “They were just coming and coming.”

“It’s an invasion, definitely,” said another. “Normally you get a few flying down the street or whatnot but never this many. It’s never been this bad.”

The phenomenon is not confined to America. In Victoria, Australia in 2016, “hairy panic” tumbleweeds blanketed the town of Wangaratta.