"Apocalypse of Poppy": A "Small City of California Invaded by Thousands of Tourists" Declares "Public Safety Crisis"

The hills covered with bright flowers often offer a beautiful sight, sometimes even comforting. But for a small town in southern California, the idyllic scenes have become a chaotic nightmare: "The apocalypse of the poppy".

The precursors of destruction? Tens of thousands of the tourists crazy flowers.

Officials Elsinore Lake, California, located just over an hour southeast of Los Angeles, announced Sunday the closure of access to its celebrities gold fields of poppies in California after "the crowds of Disneyland" flooded the city about 66,000 people on weekends, stretch resources and create a "crisis of public security".

"This weekend was unbearablethe city said Sunday in a shared ad through social networking platforms. We will evaluate all options next week, including ways to solve this problem … we know that it was miserable and caused unnecessary discomfort for our entire community "

The publication included a graphic with a large red X on a photo of the poppy fields and a big text that said: "No more transport or access" and "No exams or visits". It also included several highlighted hashtags, such as "#PoppyShutdown","#PoppyNightmare"and"#IsItOver"

City officials did not respond to requests for comment Sunday night.

This is not the first time the region is flooded with tourists eager to see the abundant exposure of desert flowers known as super flowering, a natural phenomenon in which Wildflowers bloom at higher than normal rates after an exceptionally intense rainy season and favorable temperatures, Los Angeles Times. Because of its proximity to Walker Canyon, an ecological reserve that covers 490 acres, Lake Elsinore It is distinguished in several lists of places that people should visit if they want to see a super flowering.

This year, city officials seemed enthusiastic to welcome visitors again, the report said. Time.

"These hills are covered with millions of poppies"he said to the Time Kim Cousins, President of the Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce. "It's about, as they say."

In an interview with News from the valley, Lake Elsinore Mayor Steve Manos promoted the phenomenon as a way to show the "natural beauty" from the city.

But then, the visitors started to appear and they kept coming.

"It's different from everything we've seen," writes Manos in a publication titled "PROBLEMS OF THE POPPY"He shared on Facebook on Tuesday, the number of visitors was" unprecedented, "he wrote, adding that residents should"avoid the area at all costs this weekend"

The officials have developed detailed plans to manage the influx of people, which included the development of a shuttle system, but Saturday's Manos publications seemed to reflect a situation more and more serious.

"We are overwhelmed"he wrote." One of our employees was Hitting and running by a driver. Nail Little rattlesnake to a visitor The locals shouted at the people who manage the traffic. "

Queues of cars traveling at a turtle's pace had turned the main roads into car parks. He was asked help state and county agencies. The members of the town hall stood in the street with flags controlling traffic. Left almost unguarded, ungovernable trampled tourists and picked the beautiful flowers.

"It's crazy," wrote Manos, estimating that around 50,000 people had come to Elsinore Lake On Saturday, some queued at 5:30. At the beginning of Monday, there were more than 105,000 posts on Instagram with the hashtag #superbloom, some of which were taken in Walker Canyon.

On Facebook, the city shared equally desperate updates, imploring visitors to reschedule their trips.

"The City has spent all the resources available to run the #SuperBloom," a publication said Saturday. "We brought all the available staff, as many external traffic controllers as we could, more transportation and our small town can not contain crowds of this magnitude"

He continued, "We are short of options."

Sunday, the situation did not improve.

"Our employees who work 7 consecutive days and 12 hours the day they suffer worse behaviors"wrote the city in a Facebook post.

The videos shared by Manos on Sunday showed rows of cars stuck in traffic on the highway, out of sight.

Going to the beginning of the trail, pbading a crowd of people, a portable bathroom He caught his attention. A sign was placed on the front saying: "Complete, do not use it"Unfortunately, there were problems for people to come to change the toiletHe said that there was too much traffic.

"We're just trying to handle that as best we can," Manos said in a video. "Actually we have all the members of our staff there"including the employee who was injured by the car.

"The guy who was hit by the car he got up, hobbled and worked 12 hours a day, "he said. This is the commitment of your city's staff. "

Although the city has announced a #PoppyShutdown and closed the fields to visitors, Manos warned residents Sunday that the madness may not be over yet. At the end of this week, the weather forecast says it's going to rain, which only means one thing: more flowers.

"The rain is going to be like vitamins for these poppies"He said in the video." I guess the next weekend will be almost as bad as this one. . . . This is a sample of what could come. "