California suburb buried by ‘tumbleweed invasion’

Up to 150 houses in Victorville, California have been buried under a “tornado” of tumbleweeds.

Unusually strong winds on Monday led to thousands of the weeds descending onto a residential area on the edge of town that faces onto open desert, the Daily Press-Democrat reports.

Video footage taken in the aftermath of the high winds shows giant stacks of tumbleweeds around the properties, some as high as the first storey.

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Victorville spokeswoman Sue Jones said that as many as 150 homes in the High Desert area, about 80 miles north-east of Los Angeles, were affected by the onslaught.

Tumbleweeds may appear light and harmless, but up-close the weed is thorny - and the tangled heaps piling up around Victorville homes made it impossible for some residents to leave their homes.

"Yesterday I can't even stand here in my garage,” one homeowner told ABC. “There was like a hundred of these bushes. They were just flowing like it was a tornado.”

The “mass invasion” of the prickly pests “left some residents calling the city and even 911 for help”, the Victorville Daily Press reports.

Municipal cleanup crews dispatched to the area have “collected tumbleweeds by the truck full”, says ABC.

The invasion was not confined to California. In Utah, the West Jordan suburb of Salt Lake City experienced a similar tumbleweed takeover: