Several party attendees had a fright when a severe thunderstorm sent a bounce house flying and attendees running for the hills. The incident happened in Hillsboro, Alabama.
It would appear that the thunderstorm caught the town unaware. Residents had gathered for a party, but that was quickly interrupted by the extreme weather. The only one celebrating was the lightning dancing across the sky and the thunder applauding. According to one attendee, the radar failed to capture how severe the storm would be.
Joshua Cofield said they were caught unaware.
"It was just a small green spot [on radar]; no more than three minutes later, the wind picked up, and that was the result," Cofield said. Someone caught all of the carnage on video. See below. People ran for cover as a tent got flatten by the wind. A few seconds later, a large bounce house ends up going skyward. The winds push it into the air.
Bounce House Goes Skyward
Fortunately, I have some good news. No one was on the bounce house. However, the winds knocked it around and also collapsed tents. The latter appeared to be more of a hassle than the bounce house. Cofield said a few people got hurt when their tent collapsed on top of them. Fortunately, no one garnered any major injuries, and they were able to escape the tent.
Likewise, local authorities said the storm didn't injure anyone significantly. However, it did cause a couple of fallen power lines. A cold front caused severe weather in the South, affecting several states.
In other bounce house related news, a inflatable went airborne earlier this month with much more tragic results.
The bounce house was at least the second inflatable to go airborne due to sudden wind gusts in the past few weeks. The incident happened at a Southern Maryland Blue Crabs baseball game. Wind took the bounce house airborne, up to 15 to 20 feet in the air. Children were on it and fell out as it went skyward. A 5-year-old ended up dying. Another was injured. Since 2000, 28 people died from bounce houses. Hundreds have also been injured.
