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4th February 2014, 05:24 AM
Return of the Dust Bowl?
See the photos and video at end of post
Invasion of the TUMBLEWEEDS: Mountains of desert plants invade New Mexico town burying houses and leaving residents trapped inside homes
Clovis, New Mexico has found itself inundated with 8-foot piles of the windblown desert plants since Sunday
The tumbleweeds blew in with extremely high winds and just kept coming for days
Many long-time residents say they've never seen anything like it
By Joshua Gardner
PUBLISHED: 22:05 EST, 30 January 2014 | UPDATED: 09:29 EST, 31 January 2014
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A New Mexico town is covered in 8 to 9-foot piles of tumbleweed thanks to days of high desert winds blowing in the roaming bushes.
Homeowners in Clovis say the tumbleweeds just started flowing in on Sunday like 'herds of cow' and have since buried homes and even trapped residents in their houses.
Even longtime Clovis residents say they've never seen anything like it.
Scroll down for video
Trapped! Tumbleweeds began blowing into Clovis, New Mexico Sunday night and the onslaught went on for days
Otherworldly: The tumbleweeds became some thick that residents began calling it an invasion
"[We] couldn't get out of the garage,' Eddie Ward told KRQE. 'We've lived here 23 years and never seen this. So it's pretty crazy.
Ward and his mother were among the dumbfounded residents of Clovis who woke up Monday morning to the mountains of Salsola iberica, or Russian thistle.
The noxious invader that arrived from the Eurasion steppe in the 1800's is now common weed throughout the West.
Too common if you ask Lee Cassidy of Clovis.
Trapped: Some people became trapped inside their homes and had to call 911
TUMBLEWEEDS: THE RUSSIAN BORN SYMBOL OF THE WEST
Tumbleweeds AKA Russian Thistle AKA Salsola iberica is native not to the barren American West, but to the frigid steppe of central Asia.
The tumbleweeds hitched a ride with settlers, likely landing somewhere in the Dakotas prior to the 1880s.
The tenacious plant, which saps water from already parched lands and has few if any uses, quickly became ubiquitous in the central western states.
The largest specimens can grow as large as a Volkswagen Beetle.
Each winter when the plants dry up and die, the break off their stems and roll away with the winds to spread their nefarious seeds, hundreds of thousands of them, for miles around.
.'It looked like a herd of cows coming,' she said of the invasion. 'The tumbleweeds were just rolling in.'
'We tried to get out of the house and front and back door was both covered with tumbleweeds and we couldn't get out,' Wilford Ransom said.
Unsure what to do, he called 911.
'The lady asked what was the emergency and I told her we were covered with tumbleweeds,' he said.
Though it sounds funny, the tumbleweeds are no laughing matter.
City crews from Clovis quickly began the Herculean task of removing the thousands of tumbleweeds that just keep doing what they do best and rolling away.
And with each recurring bout with high desert winds, Clovis was dealt another prickly, dead brown blow from their tumbling invaders.
The city of Clovis told KOB that workers would be around town with dump trucks and excavators through the end of the week trying to clean up the unprecedented mess.
But that's just on public property. The city can't go into years to help rid residents of tumbleweeds.
And that has many folks in Clovis fearing the nuisance nettles might be around for quite some time.
The cleanup began shortly after the invasion but renewed desert winds kept sending more weeds flying into town
Herculean: The city sent out men, trucks, and heavy machinery, but the task before them was daunting
Private problem: Crews did what they could to remove the weeds from public land, but there was nothing they could do for homes inundated with the prickly plant
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2549183/Mountains-TUMBLEWEED-invade-New-Mexico-town-burying-houses-leaving-residents-trapped-inside-homes.html#ixzz2sMJgGB63
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tiPOMd14eQ
First came the tumbleweeds and the land is stripped. Then comes the dust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX4Li63kKZc
See the photos and video at end of post
Invasion of the TUMBLEWEEDS: Mountains of desert plants invade New Mexico town burying houses and leaving residents trapped inside homes
Clovis, New Mexico has found itself inundated with 8-foot piles of the windblown desert plants since Sunday
The tumbleweeds blew in with extremely high winds and just kept coming for days
Many long-time residents say they've never seen anything like it
By Joshua Gardner
PUBLISHED: 22:05 EST, 30 January 2014 | UPDATED: 09:29 EST, 31 January 2014
923 shares 62
View
comments
A New Mexico town is covered in 8 to 9-foot piles of tumbleweed thanks to days of high desert winds blowing in the roaming bushes.
Homeowners in Clovis say the tumbleweeds just started flowing in on Sunday like 'herds of cow' and have since buried homes and even trapped residents in their houses.
Even longtime Clovis residents say they've never seen anything like it.
Scroll down for video
Trapped! Tumbleweeds began blowing into Clovis, New Mexico Sunday night and the onslaught went on for days
Otherworldly: The tumbleweeds became some thick that residents began calling it an invasion
"[We] couldn't get out of the garage,' Eddie Ward told KRQE. 'We've lived here 23 years and never seen this. So it's pretty crazy.
Ward and his mother were among the dumbfounded residents of Clovis who woke up Monday morning to the mountains of Salsola iberica, or Russian thistle.
The noxious invader that arrived from the Eurasion steppe in the 1800's is now common weed throughout the West.
Too common if you ask Lee Cassidy of Clovis.
Trapped: Some people became trapped inside their homes and had to call 911
TUMBLEWEEDS: THE RUSSIAN BORN SYMBOL OF THE WEST
Tumbleweeds AKA Russian Thistle AKA Salsola iberica is native not to the barren American West, but to the frigid steppe of central Asia.
The tumbleweeds hitched a ride with settlers, likely landing somewhere in the Dakotas prior to the 1880s.
The tenacious plant, which saps water from already parched lands and has few if any uses, quickly became ubiquitous in the central western states.
The largest specimens can grow as large as a Volkswagen Beetle.
Each winter when the plants dry up and die, the break off their stems and roll away with the winds to spread their nefarious seeds, hundreds of thousands of them, for miles around.
.'It looked like a herd of cows coming,' she said of the invasion. 'The tumbleweeds were just rolling in.'
'We tried to get out of the house and front and back door was both covered with tumbleweeds and we couldn't get out,' Wilford Ransom said.
Unsure what to do, he called 911.
'The lady asked what was the emergency and I told her we were covered with tumbleweeds,' he said.
Though it sounds funny, the tumbleweeds are no laughing matter.
City crews from Clovis quickly began the Herculean task of removing the thousands of tumbleweeds that just keep doing what they do best and rolling away.
And with each recurring bout with high desert winds, Clovis was dealt another prickly, dead brown blow from their tumbling invaders.
The city of Clovis told KOB that workers would be around town with dump trucks and excavators through the end of the week trying to clean up the unprecedented mess.
But that's just on public property. The city can't go into years to help rid residents of tumbleweeds.
And that has many folks in Clovis fearing the nuisance nettles might be around for quite some time.
The cleanup began shortly after the invasion but renewed desert winds kept sending more weeds flying into town
Herculean: The city sent out men, trucks, and heavy machinery, but the task before them was daunting
Private problem: Crews did what they could to remove the weeds from public land, but there was nothing they could do for homes inundated with the prickly plant
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2549183/Mountains-TUMBLEWEED-invade-New-Mexico-town-burying-houses-leaving-residents-trapped-inside-homes.html#ixzz2sMJgGB63
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tiPOMd14eQ
First came the tumbleweeds and the land is stripped. Then comes the dust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX4Li63kKZc