Tumbleweeds Invade S.D. Town--Homes Buried, Roads Blocked

MOBRIDGE, S.D. —  Increasing winds Thursday blew more tumbleweeds into town, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contemplated how to stop an invasion that has buried homes and blocked streets.

“They’re still coming,” Police Chief Brooks Johnson said. “The wind is picking up. They’ve been baling this morning, but they’re losing ground now.”

Johnson said some streets that were blocked by tumbleweeds were cleared Thursday. Officials were worried about fires from the tinder-dry brush and traffic accidents, but Johnson said none had been reported.

“Most of the people slow down and let the thistle blow across the road before they drive through,” he said.

Two years of drought exposed the banks of the nearby Oahe Reservoir, providing a perfect spot for the Russian thistle commonly known as tumbleweed to flourish. High winds Tuesday night launched the invasion, and Thursday’s forecast called for winds gusting to 35 m.p.h.

Crews have been trying to bale the weeds already in town, but corps officials said Thursday that they are not sure how to battle the brush left along the reservoir.

One option is a controlled burn, but the extent of the weeds and the cool, windy weather could pose problems, said Mike George, a natural resource specialist with the corps.

Another is to chop the stringy weeds so they won’t wrap around one another into mounds that grow, snowball-fashion, as they are tossed across the prairie.

He estimated that several hundred acres of weeds remain on the banks of the Missouri River.

George said a combination of weather and geography led to the flurry of tumbleweeds, which buried some homes in the north-central South Dakota town of about 4,000 people.

“They grow all summer long, and at the first frost they die,” he said. “They break off right at ground level and get blown around by the wind.”

Other towns need not worry, he said, adding: “Mobridge is fairly unique in that it sits right on the river.”

George said the weeds first appeared in the United States during the late 1800s in South Dakota. The scrubby tumbleweeds have a prairie charm that captivates the imaginations of tourists, he added.

“We get visitors to the lake all the time, and the two things they just freak at are prairie dogs and tumbleweeds,” George said. “Only in South Dakota would you have a town taken over by tumbleweeds.”