Memorial Day was ruined for three children who were spending the holiday weekend with their families in Fort Lauderdale, after a small tornado uprooted the beach bounce house they were playing in and sent it flying about 20 feet into the air before landing in a nearby basketball court. Shadaja Bryant, 5, her stepbrother A.J. Dent, 11, and Shamoya Ferguson, 6, were lucky enough to walk away with mostly just cuts and bruises (both Bryant and Dent also sustained broken arms), despite the scary nature of their ordeal.
The families of the victims spoke with Miami’s WSVN 7 News following the incident:
Witnesses said, when the waterspout made its way inland, it tossed over a canopy and rolled the bounce house before lifting it airborne. “It was headed my way, but then all of a sudden it just made a sharp turn, and it went to us where the kids were playing, at the bounce house,” said Hubert Dent, AJ’s father.
“I was crying, I was terrified,” said Ryant Howard, Shadaja’s father. “I thought she was gone.”
Howard said, in hindsight, he questions just how secure the bounce house was. “I thought it was safe … [but] if couldn’t have been that safe if it was in the concrete,” he said.
That’s kind of the point… if we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousand times, bounce houses are generally not entirely safe due to their penchant for sometimes flying off into the air. Oh, just a giant, air-filled structure that’s completely impervious to outside elements, unless a strong breeze comes through.