Woman speaks out after dust devil lifts inflatable jumper 100 feet

A California homeowner is speaking out after a close call Sunday with a dust devil, which nearly lifted away their backyard bounce house.

Yvonne Iribe told Los Angeles ABC station KABC what was supposed to be a fun afternoon quickly turned into a terrifying incident.

"We were relaxing in the pool. Next thing you know, a little dust devil, dirt devil comes by and swept our trampoline and our jumper away," Iribe recalled.

Iribe estimated the inflatable jumper was tossed up about 100 feet in the air and "landed on the neighbor's house."

Iribe and her family said they're relieved no one was injured, but the incident left them shaken.

"It was very dangerous, very scary," Iribe said.

The dust devil kicked up enough wind to also flip over the family's trampoline. Iribe said her parked truck stopped the trampoline from rolling any further.

The trampoline's impact caused the windshield and antenna on Iribe's truck to crack, she added.

Past windy bounce house incidents have left children hospitalized, dragged inflatables hundreds of feet away or worse. A University of Georgia study, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in 2022, tracked wind-related bounce house incidents from 2000 to 2021 and concluded these incidents "caused at least 479 injuries and at least 28 deaths."

Dr. John Knox, a geography professor at the University of Georgia and one of the study researchers said, "The injuries can be varied. But you can have more severe injuries because even though the bounce houses look cute and cuddly, if they're flying in the air and they hit you, you can suffer a concussion or worse."

Experts say homeowners should make sure bounce house stakes are properly secured to the ground and homeowners can use additional sandbags to keep bounce houses from flying away. Bounce houses should also not be used if wind conditions exceed 15 miles per hour.