The Terrifying True Story Of How An Innocent Balloon Festival Crippled A City For Weeks
Balloons are fun unless something like this happened. In 1986, a mass balloon release in Cleveland went really, really wrong, when 1.5 million helium-filled floaters were let loose into the sky, got caught in a storm, drifted down to earth, and caused a hell of a lot of problems.
1 Cleveland Balloon fest Was Supposed To Be A Huge Fundraiser
Cleveland decided to make the news by being the city that released the most balloons at once. 1.5 million balloons were inflated to be released at once.
2 1.5 Million Balloons Were Place Under A Net
Volunteers from United Way of Cleveland inflated the 1.5 million balloons and placed them under a net.
3 There Was A Bad Weather Warning But A Decision Was Made To Release The Balloons
For sometime everything looked like it was going according to plan
4 The Storm Came And It Became A Horror-Film Urban Infestation
The huge storm came into the city and pushed all of the released balloons back into the city.
5 People Drown And A Huge Mess
As a result of the storm a boat capsized. Rescue helicopters could not get near the river because of the balloons. Then the asteroid field of airborne debris clouded the sky, shut down a runway at a local airport, interrupted Coast Guard attempts to rescue a pair of fishermen, spooked some prize-winning horses, and made a mess of garbage. Good intentions went terribly wrong
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