I can only imagine how terrified the girl was as the bounce house was lifted over a ROOFTOP!....SCARY! And to the people saying it's the parents' fault because they didn't stake it down, the article doesn't say it wasn't staked down and also the wind was strong enough to lift the bounce house off the ground with 2 girls in it - that may have been as much as 150 - 200 lbs total weight for bouncy and girls, and then it lifted it all the way above the rooftop and carried it for over 100 ft. I seriously doubt a few little metal stakes in the ground would have made a difference in these circumstances.

we had a microburst here, one Summer, and it was quite an event. But I do remember we had about 20 minutes warning. Even so, not having ever experienced a microburst before, and the warning was for "extreme weather", I didn't run right out and batten the hatches. Consequently, our car windows were down when it hit. My wife yelled that they were down as 1/2 " hail blasted the dirt out of flower pots and broke a couple. She said, "Go close them!" I said, "I'm not going out in that." She said, "Then I will" and I said, "no you won't." Then the wind and rain hit. We were unable to see across the street. After about 15 minutes, it all went away, and clear blue skies with temps hovering around 95 returned. Our car had 3" of standing water and leaves in it. Still, we had warning. Were the parents of these girls not listening?

Too bad they couldn't have just held onto the netting of the walls. That would have been quite a gentle landing inside a bounce house.

Levi777 - we experienced a microburst so severe one year that it was months before the National Weather Service officially declared that it wasn't a tornado. Huge amounts of destruction - to property and to trees. We had no notice. Just because you had warning you can't assume everyone did. Out storm came out of nowhere - it didn't even look like it was going to rain.

These folks were out in their yard. How would they have heard a warning? I know I don't listen to weather radio unless I feel there's a reason. When our microburst came through there really wasn't a reason to listen until we were already experiencing the storm.

The individuals responsible for setting up the bouncy house, the ones the house was rented from, would have been responsible for staking it down, and I believe wholeheardly that they did. This is part of the service. They bring it, set it up and take it down. So for anyone assuming it was not staked down, I say poop on you. As for why not heeding a warning. If they were outside with a yard full of kids whooping it up, on a gorgeous day, why would anyone be expecting a microburst and no, not all of them come with a warning. Some places have a horn warning system but not every city does, and they are not all audible in every part of town. I have never understood why so many people are so ready to jump on others for events that most could not anticipate let alone control. The parents are not to blame. The bouncy house contractors are likely not to blame. The warning system (if in place) was not to blame. Nature was to blame and that's that. However, I believe with all my heart these parents and the bouncy house business owner's will be sued because some low llife attorney will have been at their doors before the little girl was rescued from the roof.

@ William: But everything bad in the world IS Dumbya's fault. That's where the difference lies.

Still, we had warning. Were the parents of these girls not listening?

Levi777 - There was a birthday party happening. Do you really expect the parents to be watching TV or listening to any other device on which a severe weather warning might have been posted? You obviously have never had a bunch of 10-year-olds over to your house for a party.

I'm sure that there is some sort of insurance coverage, either homeowner's or through the supplier of the bounce house.

A terrifying experience for all involved. Thank goodness the girls will be okay, but most likely much less enthusiastic about bounce houses.

ABCzyx,

The party was outside. It does'nt take a rocket scientist to look at the clouds and say " ya know, maybe we should move the party inside"

schoolyard,

have you been reading the posts at all? Most of the times microbursts happen WITHOUT warning of any kind. No tell-tale signs of something coming, nothing. They can appear out of nowhere, which is most likely what happened here. Please don;t condemn without knowing the full story.

Those poor girls and their families have been through a horrific experience. I hope the one with the injuries will heal without significant physical or emotional scars. There is nothing like an act of nature whether it's a micro burst, lightening strike, earthquake, etc. out of the blue to produce injuries and scare the heck out of people.

A bounce-house that should have been secured.

For many decades I have wondered about the impact that powerful storms have on "trailers."

In a tornado, hurricane, or very high wind storms they always seem to be the first homes to be destroyed.

Apparently, this is because they are light weight and are not secured to any thing solid.

How much more would it cost in their production if they would be made more secure in the manufacturing?

The obvious would be a length of steel running from front to back. This could be triangulated with a little more steel down the two ends.

At the top there would be welded hooks to the linear piece of steel.

Guy-wires could be attached to the hooks with anchors at one end. The anchors could then be set into concrete.

This could all be tested out in a wind chamber. I have no clue as to the added costs, but the added safety would save many lives and injuries.

I understand that "concrete," today costs over a hundred dollars a yard.

Tests in a wind tunnel would determine the size of the steel, the number of guy-wires, and the total number of yards of concrete.

Trailers are a less expensive means to purchase a home. Would the cost for the added safety be prohibitive?

Just a thought, a mere thought, and nothing but a thought.

Most trailers/mobil homes ARE tied and anchored down. Not only is it smart, it's a requirement of most local building codes.

She should have called the news as the real ballonboy(girl).

You are assuming that it was not staked, which is very unlikely. These things are rented and set up by the professionals who own them. They know how to secure them. Microbursts are extraordinarily powerful and could easily rip something like that (light with a lot of surface area) out of the ground.

All of which states nothing but the obvious. Why is it that you rush to judgment and blame the parents?

Over the years I have seen tents that were staked down get blown away. Heavy carport, patio covers, get blown away by sudden bursts of air on an otherwise calm day.

Microbursts essentially are tornadoes, but without the rotation. One hit my place last year and ripped a large tree in half. Winds were estimated at over 150 mph.

We suspect it was a microburst that shoved a piece of straw straight into a telephone pole - looked like a yellow nail till we got close and touched it.

I'd imagine the 'bouncy house' eventually landed heavy-side down/right side up, so if you managed to stay inside you'd (hopefully) just have a BIG bounce and be allright. With something to hold onto, that'd be a heckuva ride!

I truly am sorry for the girls and hope the seriously injured girl recovers fully.

There something fishing about this. There most likely was no microburst because no credible source declared a microburst. The experts are the family members, "when what family members called "a microburst" picked up the bounce house." I was in a real microburst and it covered a good size area and there was damage to other parts. It most likely was a large gust of wind and the toy was not secured properly.

Yea, we don't want a bunch of little plastic balls filled with air to hurt anyone!

Once a long time ago when I worked for a carnival, a very sudden wind came up. The Bounce House, (not a small one like would be at a house party) but one that was properly secured to long stakes driven in the ground, was suddenly picked up an moved by that sudden wind. There were children inside that Bounce when I ran and grabbed one of the staking ropes while screaming for help. Others joined in and helped hold it while others got the children out and started the deflation process. We were fortunate that the children were safely removed before anyone was hurt and we were able to deflate the Bounce before it got away. Some of the ropes had pulled lose as a result of that wind so I know that even a secured Bounce House could easily be picked up by a sudden wind. That same wind popped a couple of Ferris Wheel seats out that fell to the ground. There were riders on the wheel but only empty seats popped off. I do not doubt the power of a sudden wind like that and what it can do.

I swear, at least half of these posters, never even read the story, they read the Headline and go straight to the posts, and just add their dribble to what others are saying. Short article, never mentioned the bounce house being or not being staked down. But seriously, even though common sense really isn't all that common, don't you think that the parents staked it down? And bringing politics into every damn story on here is so dad-gum(Bobby Bowden quote) stupid. Hell, for all we know, there was a Big-Foot nearby and he farted towards the bounce house because he was annoyed of the little girls giggling and laughter at the fun they were having..... get a clue....

Wow. In almost every post we have people asking for accountability.

The rental company, the parents, all "should a..."

Just in this past week alone, with the news of this and that, from coast to coast; where were you then when it came to demanding action and "accountability?"

Within the past week, The Congress did this and that, homes burned while people were trying to stay warm, police men were murdered and wounded, little children were abducted and raped, women were raped, old men and women were assaulted and brutalized, the Army Corps refuses to release their finding on the "carp," People were taken hostage, banks and stores were robbed, children in Madison go without food because teachers take a sick day, Americans take it again at the pump, more unemployed, and on and on.

And you write about a "bounce-house?"

A microburst can easily move a real house so you think it cannot move a staked down "bounce house" why? You ASSume much and know little.

i live on the border of marana and tucson and yesterday it was very nice outside. my two year old was playing outside and i never once considered that she was in any danger. yes we got a little wind but it wasn't anything that felt threatening at all.

It is ridiculous to blame the parents or the bounce house company. I am sure the kids were having a great time jumping in the wind right up until the microburst showed up and ruined the day.

And they may not have had much wind in general, where they live. Arizona has lots of mountains and valleys. There are many places where it can be very windy in one place, and mostly calm just a mile or so away.

Oh come on just wrap your kid up in cushions and let them waddle around. In the real world kids play and want to have fun. It is the job of the parent to secure those things down.

It's sad what happened but everything in life is dangerous. Just hope the kid gets well.

I never leave my home for fear of those bounce houses, well that & small birds!

Why are they so small, they never get bigger!

I know what ya mean SlimJim2. I was on my way to work when I saw one of them bouncey house thingys, and it scared me silly. Then, just when I thought I was gonna be okay, I saw this little birdie and he was staring right at me.... ooooo, gave me the heebie-jeebies....

...so is taking a bath!!!

you guys are funny...actually i have sons named Jim and Bryan so it was extra funny.......but seriously i hope the girls heal completely and can someday laugh about this...Tuscon trama center has a reputation for job well done !

walking down stairs is dangerous. I am sick of these kid coddling parents. They are turning the next generation into entitlement minded sissy libiots who are afraid of everything. Life is dangerous, enough already.

@ drill: How do you know we're not turning the next generation into Teabagging sheeple?

Oh, good grief, Drill. Why is it you need to turn something like this into a political insult? Life is not safe. Parents should teach their children what is dangerous and what is not, protect them from what they can, and pray they survive the rest. That's neither liberal or conservative - merely responsible.

Drill, I'm a liberal, and I don't coddle my child at all. Stop labeling and have a mature and real conversation already.

tea baggers are anything but sheep. they are people who are trying to take control of their government unlike those that just wait for the government to take care of them.

MSNBC- tea baggers are sheep.

Fox- your government is going broke

Liberals- I thought those people were all idiots now i have confirmation.

conservatives- yes there is a problem we need to do something.

Really?

In one of my statements I stated that the parents are responsible to stake the bounce house down, but I did not mean to imply that they did not do that already. People can only protect their children so much and what happens happens. I hope the little girl has a full and fast recovery.

Well if you have to bring in politics then you must blame James Buchanan who in 1859 let those two fellers' Drake & Smith have the first oil boon.

Without the oil plastic would have never been invented! Hence no blow away house.

bklynj, going to call you out on that one, even though I realize you were being sarcastic. Ever hear of hot air balloons?

"On the 19th September 1783 Pilatre De Rozier, a scientist, launched the first hot air balloon called 'Aerostat Reveillon'. The passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster and the balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes before crashing back to the ground.

The first manned attempt came about 2 months later on 21st November, with a balloon made by 2 French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. The balloon was launched from the centre of Paris and flew for a period of 20 minutes. The birth of hot air ballooning."

@rascal

You are right in that balloon but that balloon was made of material, the bounce house was made of plastic. Those old and maybe even today are made of silk. Some old ones were made of cotton and then rubbed down with oil to seal them. Don't believe they had plastic in 1783.

You ever been in a cockpit?

I have (once), it wasn't fun!

@bklynj

We're both right. You could conceivably make a bounce house using hot air and silk, that was the point I was making with the hot air balloon theory.

Hey Morg, it's Obama's fault because he hasn't passed legislation to regulate the use of bounce houses. Just kidding of course but couldn't pass up the opportunity to be a smart *** to the comment "i can't believe some heartless weasels would bring politics into a story like this"

absolutely

It would be interestingly funny to watch you carry your arms around to defend yourself. I myself use my arms to carry my guns with super large capacity mags to defend myself... ;-) I also believe in my rights to arm bears.... or something like that....

it is not arm bears it is naked arms or something like that ;)

if only you were there to shoot the bounce house before it indangered the children. :)

yeah, why would tinley call her a "witch" when we all know that she is The Queen of Alaska....

Queen of Alaska? She looks like a bad drag queen.

And the list of idiots keeps growing

I'm sure something similar to a tornado is as visible as a tornado, or at least a dust devil. Where were the parents? You see the dirt flying by and you don't have a clue?

You cannot see it coming. It is a straight downdraft of air.

Your are correct, they are surprising.

I was flying over the mountains in Virginia with my cousin in the late 1980's in a small plane. we were several miles from a storm front and trying to beat it into the airport, which we could see ahead of us. We were hit with microburst. Went from several thousand feet to just a few hundred feet from the ground in about 20 seconds. How he kept the plane level I still don't know. Thought I had wet myself until I realized the coffee from my thermos, and the cup of coffee I had just poured, was all over the cockpit.

It had taken us almost two hours to reach that point. It only took us twenty minutes to fly back to where we started.

There are Angels!

A microburst you cannot see it. It just happens. Trust me, work around small aircraft's and see them moved by wind is really speaking volumes about the strength wind has to it! A Tornado is usually visible because it stays on ground, and the matter around it accumulates, making it visible. Someone could explain better than me on that, but we should all be thankful to read that both children walked away from this with minor injuries! It could have been a lot worse!

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to the children who were injured.

Microbursts hit with little or no warning - we had 4 trees (30+ feet high Locust trees) at back of our property. A micoburst hit - uprooted 3 of the 4 and left perenial flowers 20 feet away untouched. The statements above critical of parents or thinking that stakes would withstand this type of weather - have clearly never seen first hand the power of microbursts or straight line winds.

That never happend & you know it didn't!

I completely agree. We had a microburst split a large tree and it fell on our Suburban, but nothing else in the area was damaged, just the tree. NWS came out (we live in Kansas) to look at the damage as it was a dark and stormy night (no kidding!) when it happened, and they certified it as a microburst. They can do incredible amounts of damage in one area and 2 feet away everything is fine.

I hope the little girl gets better, I will keep her and her family in my thoughts.

Several years ago a microburst hit our city. I was standing at my kitchen sink and BAM the window in front of me blew in, glass everywhere. It happened in the blink of an eye...there and gone. The entire city had trees sheared off in the middle, greenhouse window glass covered the highways, semi's in a store parking lot overturned, even a condo's top floors were sheared off. Those winds are sideways winds, they cut like a knife. I can't think of the meteorlogial name for them. Starts with a "D". I think. But it's very easy to understand how this happened to that bouncy house. There would have been no warning whatsoever. Get off the parents' backs. Why must SOMEONE be assigned "BLAME" for EVERYTHING. Stuff happens.

more proof that men weren't meant to fly. damned machines will be the death of us all. but boy is it fun.

all politics is loco.

Thank you @scortched earth! Couldn't we all just breathe a collective sigh of relief that these children will be ok? That is, after all, what really matters here...

Did they say If the bounce house was still ok?

no jim the bounce house dumped out one little girl in the yard and one on a neighbors roof and then kept bouncing.....if you look out your window right now....

the internet is not a good place for sensitive people.

Sensitive or sensible?

I live in AZ and what you say is ridiculous. Those against universal healthcare do not believe that poor people should be denied healthcare. Rather they can get it all they want, but they shouldn't expect everyone else to pay for it, especially when ailments and injuries are a result of lifestyle choices (like smoking or driving irresponsibly and causing a car crash). Also if some uninsured person has a real medical emergency and goes to the emergency room, they aren't going to be denied medical attention even if they are illegal (and there are a ton of those here!). And haven't you ever heard of Medicaid? Kids from poor families get Medicaid all the time, and if some poor person isn't taking advantage of that for their children, then that's their problem. By the way, the various private insurance companies that I have used have never denied me any medical care that I sought. I'm not saying that doesn't ever happen to anyone, but you make it sound like insurance companies only deny healthcare and never approve any claims. Plus look what you said: "have the government give you health care." Give. That's the problem; too many people think they should be given everything instead of them trying their hardest and using various resources to make things work. How many of these poor people are lifetime welfare recipients who never pay taxes (because they don't pay have a job or make too little to have any tax liability)? Not all, but LOTS. And, of course, they have little incentive to work or earn more money because then they wouldn't get all this free stuff (food stamps, HUD funds for housing, WIC, Medicaid, etc.). So quit maligning those who aren't excited about just giving stuff to poor people.

yup we can't wait to deny emergency treatment to children. in fact we all just sit around the hospital and chuckle whenever a bus of illegal aliens rolls over.

apparently you have been denied your much needed mental health treatment and that is a shame.

So if you throw a rock at another kid and kill him, he's the one that is unfit to live?

I met many kids like you when I was growing up, most unfortunately.

Thank God the girls were not hurt seriously.

Steve, no worries. John was the kid whose mom never let him come out and play or get dirty. He's finally gotten some balls, as long as he's on the internet...

We had rock fights, shot Roman Candles at each other, SnowBall fights, even BB Gun fights, strangely, or luckily none of us ever suffered any serious injuries.... ahh! the good ole days, now a-days, we would have to sue the makers of the bouncey house and the weather channel for the high winds. Oh, and the owners of the house that the girl crashed down on....

LOL! yep I did the same thing, cracked that rock right off my sisters head. from all the across the parking lot hahah. well she still alive. and we laugh about it today..

But I laugh harder

Steve-

We had simular war game with neighboring streets, though we used green citrus which hurt just as well. But it was tough fun. The kid like 'John' was never chosen on neither warring teams due to the softness and decision making skills. So, his mom bought him the only football on the block, (meaning we had to play our game by his rule and end the game when his mom felt like 'JOHN' didn't get his way). We all grew up, but 'JOHN' is still living at home taking his mom to all of his social function. Ex-wife said his mom was always there cooking his favorite dishes. LOL

Our excitement was sliding down the side of over passes with card board sleds; playing parachute jumpers off of the roof top; hitching freight train rides; twenty yards swimming dashes across a 'gator infested lake during my summer stay in central Florida during the mid 60s. Plus. Dangerous lake swimming near a 'power plant.' We still got some broken bones; missing teeth; death through drowning; more. "Thats life, learning to be tough and 'fend for your self!"

Sounds like we grew up in the same neighborhood!!! I miss those days. I had cracked ribs, seperated shoulder and various other hurts, but I'd get right back out and play full contact football with no pads. We'd climb in trees, have motocross bicycle races (I went tail over head and wiped off the right side of my face on gravel, but I'm fine, you could never tell I did, now), all sorts of stuff. And, I was a CALM child! Kids now come home from school, get on the computer and play video games.

I feel sorry for them and for the parents who forgot what it was like to be a child.

Hope the girls are OK, and I hope they aren't afraid to try having fun again.

And, there is nothing wrong with natural selection.

Lol, your on drugs. But it made me laugh,

Bush was on drugs. I got proof. Ever seen Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo. Georgie had the "Good Stuff"..... They wouldn't just make that up for a movie....

Lol, that's one of my favorite movies.