Ernesto becomes hurricane after leaving 570,000 without power in Puerto Rico

(NEW YORK) — Inflatable structures like bounce houses and moonwalks are staples at children’s birthday parties and summer carnivals. Despite the fun they bring, the wind can make them dangerous — it’s something multiple families found out the hard way this year.

Shock and chaos ensued as families rushed for cover at an Alabama work picnic last Saturday, when strong winds swept away an inflatable slide during a severe thunderstorm.

“I’ve never seen a bounce house take off like that,” witness Joshua Cofield said. “It was just a crazy, freak accident. I was shocked. I was not expecting it because from where I was at, I could not see the bounce house, but when it came into the frame, it blew my mind.”

Cofield and other witnesses stated that the two inflatables knocked over by the storm each had four to six stakes to secure them to the ground, but even that wasn’t enough.

Experts from safety group Weather to Bounce say all inflatables should have stakes firmly planted in the ground, along with sandbags to weigh them down.

Saturday’s incident just one of many weather-related incidents involving large inflatables, which can cause serious injury and even death.

In April, a bounce house incident in Casa Grande, Arizona, killed a 2-year-old child. Another child was injured when the inflatable was carried away by the wind and landed in a neighboring lot.

Also in April, a Victorville, California, family experienced some turbulent weather that created a frightening scene. A video captured a dust devil forming in their backyard and whipping a bounce house high into the air while children were playing in the pool.

“It was very dangerous,” homeowner Yvonne Iribe said.

A University of Georgia study found that wind-related bounce house accidents injured at least 479 people and killed 28 worldwide from 2000 to 2021, with those numbers only rising since.

Wendy and Mitch Hammond spoke out about a horrifying incident that befell them in July 2019, after their kids Lizzy, Danny and Abby were invited to a birthday party in Reno, Nevada. The festivities included an inflatable bounce house and slide.

A sudden gust of wind lifted both inflatables into the air — Lizzy, Danny and the birthday boy were trapped inside the bounce house.

“It flew over me and as I stood up is when I turned and saw the bounce house up in the power lines hanging there,” Wendy Hammond said.

She recalled the family trying to get the bounce house down.

“It was out of reach. First responders get there. And they had too short of a ladder on their fire truck,” she said. “So then we all had to wait. While you’re screaming up at the bounce house, trying to see which kid you can hear.”

Rescuers reached the children and the boys were treated for minor injuries. However, 9-year-old Lizzy did not survive.

“It was blunt force trauma to the spine,” Mitch Hammond said. “And at that point, we decided to put her on life support and tried to harvest what we could to help other kids.”

Days later, family and friends honored Lizzy’s life with an emotional honor walk at the hospital.

The Hammonds now operate the Lizzy Hammond Foundation, to educate and advocate for legislative change. What gives them peace is knowing their late daughter’s organs gave life to others.

“I would like her legacy to be that she saved three kids, you know?” Mitch Hammond said. “So she still was a giver all the way to the very end.”

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(NEW YORK) –Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday asked a New York judge to reject former President Donald Trump’s attempt to throw out his criminal hush money conviction, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity “has nothing to say about defendant’s conviction.”

Trump earlier this month asked Judge Juan Merchan to vacate his conviction on the grounds that the trial was “tainted” by evidence and testimony that was made off-limits after the Supreme Court ruled Trump has presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office.

Prosecutors said in Thursday’s court filing that paying hush money to an adult film actress is “entirely personal” with “no relationship whatsoever to any official duty of the presidency.”

The former president was found guilty in May of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

The jury convicted Trump of 34 felony counts after seeing “overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” prosecutors argued in the filing.

Trump argued that certain evidence presented at trial — including testimony from former White House aide Hope Hicks and Trump’s tweets about his former attorney Michael Cohen — related to his official acts as president and should now be considered inadmissible in light of the Supreme Court opinion.

Prosecutors pushed back in their filing.

“The challenged Tweets bear no resemblance to the kinds of public comments that the Supreme Court indicated would qualify as official presidential conduct,” the district attorney’s office said. “Defendant’s Tweets conveying his personal opinion about his private attorney do not bear any conceivable relationship to any official duty of the Presidency.”

Prosecutors also argued that testimony from Hicks, who was once Trump’s communications director, “related solely to unofficial conduct.”

“[T]he evidence that he claims is affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling constitutes only a sliver of the mountains of testimony and documentary proof that the jury considered in finding him guilty of all 34 felony charges beyond a reasonable doubt,” the filing said.

Earlier this month, Judge Merchan postponed Trump’s sentencing in the case from July 11 to Sept. 18 so he could consider Trump’s request to vacate his conviction.

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(KETCHIKAN, Alaska.) — A 42-year-old husband and father has been identified as the man killed in a landslide in Ketchikan, Alaska, on Sunday, officials said.

Sean Griffin, a Ketchikan native and member of the city’s public works team for 17 years, was killed when he responded to help during his scheduled time off, according to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.

“Sean and another team member were clearing stormwater drains when they were caught in the landslide,” Ketchikan officials said in a statement.

“Sean was a beloved husband, father, son, neighbor, and coworker,” Ketchikan officials said. “He spent his life serving his family and his community. … He started as a solid waste collector, moved up to solid waste facility operator, then to streets maintenance technician, and finally promoted to senior maintenance technician. “

“Sean is remembered for his dedication, positive spirit, and unwavering devotion to his family, his friends, and to the community,” the statement said.

Mandatory evacuations were put in place after the landslide swept through streets on Sunday afternoon, according to Kacie Paxton, a public information officer for the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.

Three people were injured and hospitalized following the landslide, according to Paxton. One of those people was later released, she said.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an Alaska Disaster Emergency Declaration. A separate Joint Disaster Emergency Declaration was issued by borough Mayor Rodney Dial and city of Ketchikan Mayor Dave Kiffer.

“In my 65 years in Ketchikan, I have never seen a slide of this magnitude,” Kiffer said in a statement. “With the slides we have seen across the region, there is clearly a region-wide issue that we need to try to understand with the support of our state geologist.”

“The loss of life that we have encountered is heartbreaking, and my heart goes out to those who lost their homes,” he added.

Photos released by the borough appeared to show a pile of trees and loose soil up against several hillside homes, at least one of which appeared to have been pushed into another home. Other photos appeared to show roads covered with debris, including trees.

“Our prayers are with the families, the injured, those recovering, and the community,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said on social media, later adding, “My team and I stand ready to help facilitate any federal assistance that may be necessary.”

This landslide comes as Ketchikan saw about 3 inches of rain this month — about half its average rainfall for August.

Ketchikan received over 2.5 inches of rainfall over this weekend, and higher elevations in the Ketchikan Range reported 5 to 9 inches of rain. Too much rain at once after a drier period can cause a landslide.

The rain continued on Monday but is forecast to dry off through Tuesday. More rain is expected Wednesday and Thursday as a new frontal system moves in.

Landslides are common in southeast Alaska. Six people were killed, including an 11-year-old girl, in a major landslide in Wrangell, about 100 miles north of Ketchikan, last November.

ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

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