Tumblegeddon: Washington state highway buried under 30 feet of TUMBLEWEEDS, trapping drivers (PHOTOS, VIDEO)
Motorists traveling along a highway in Washington state were briefly held captive after a flash storm of tumbleweeds trapped cars under up to 30 feet of the wandering shrub, blocking the road in both directions.
Washington’s Route 240 was briefly shut down on Tuesday night due to the pileup, which saw five cars and an 18-wheeler semi-truck buried under hundreds of tumbleweeds carried into the area by high winds. The roadway was closed down for several hours while Department of Transportation workers cleared away the piles.
“People were still stuck at midnight and rung in the new year trapped under the weeds,” Washington State Patrol trooper Chris Thorson told the Associated Press.
We’re still working on clearing the roadway with @WSDOT_East . We are unsure when the roadway will be opened. Tumbleweeds are piled 20-30 feet in places. S.C. pic.twitter.com/zFbA3luscg
— Trooper C. Thorson (@wspd3pio) January 1, 2020
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Taking to Twitter with the hashtag #tumblegeddon on Wednesday morning, Thorson shared footage of workers excavating the last remaining car from the mountain of weeds, stuck there overnight – though “luckily no one was in it,” the officer noted.
#tumblegeddon After 10 hours of SR 240 being closed last night on New Year’s Eve, it was opened around 0430 thanks to @WSDOT_East We still have one abandon car trapped in the tumbleweeds that was found at daylight, luckily no one was in it. pic.twitter.com/df7XbnqafE
— Trooper C. Thorson (@wspd3pio) January 1, 2020
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Current situation. Small tumbleweed problem. pic.twitter.com/JN4vE2HjRf
— Tom Mildenhall (@tmildenhall) January 1, 2020
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The roads were finally cleared on New Year’s day after some 10 hours of digging, with workers employing snow plows to get the job done.
Snowplows used to remove tumbleweeds that blocked Washington highway for hours https://t.co/XkjXmdxo3N pic.twitter.com/HCYZ0Lf9Um
— #Q13FOX (@Q13FOX) January 1, 2020
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While the bizarre roadblock surely put a damper on the holiday for those it held up, the drivers all went on their way unharmed.
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