Barrie, Ont. construction worker survives being tossed in trailer when EF-2 hit
Stephen Galyen was at a construction site in Barrie, Ont. on Thursday when the trailer he was in started to shake before being hurled into the air.
The powerful storm, later determined to be an EF-2 tornado, had picked up the trailer and tossed it two streets over.
"We were basically just flying around through the air. It was like barrel-rolling over and over," Galyen recalls.
As the winds tore the trailer apart, Galyen says he and two others were ejected, landing in a muddy area of the job site.
The construction worker admits there was a moment he didn't think he would survive.
"I remember being on a desk at one point, things are spilling, you're hitting the ceiling, off the floor, off the wall," he describes.
Galyen remained conscious, but his two colleagues suffered serious injuries and were initially unresponsive and bleeding.
He says he jumped into action, dragging his coworkers through the mangled construction site to the still-standing office.
Galyen brought one of the men, Chris Russo, to a bin where he could rest his injured leg and broken ribs.
"I got Eddie on my shoulder," Galyen says he carried another worker, Eddie Ameland, to the front door of the office before using his belt to tie off his arm "to stop the bleeding."
The three men were soon rushed to the hospital to be treated for their injuries. Both Ameland and Russo have since been released.
Thursday's twister left a trail of destruction in the Prince William Way area five kilometres long and up to 100 metres wide in the city north of Toronto.
No one was killed in last week's tornado, but 11 people were injured, 10 of those were hospitalized.
The city said more than 100 residents were displaced, and 71 homes were deemed uninhabitable.
Galyen has since returned to work and continues sorting through the debris looking for his belongings.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
He didn't trust police but sought their help anyway. Two days later, he was dead
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
Fluid in eye cells can 'boil' if you watch the eclipse without protection: expert
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
NEW More unauthorized products for skin, sexual enhancement, recalled: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled various items this week, including torches, beef biltong and unauthorized products related to skin care and sexual enhancement.
Where is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
Do these exercises for core strength if you can't stomach doing planks
Planks are one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your midsection, as they target all of your major core muscles: the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. Yet despite the popularity of various 10-minute plank challenges, planking is actually one of the most dreaded core exercises, according to many fitness experts.
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Angst and calls for resting places as Surrey, B.C., pet cemetery development continues
A single headstone is all that remains of dozens of markers for long-buried pets in a subdivision in Surrey’s Newton neighbourhood, where a half-acre parcel bears a large sign announcing the proposed construction of new homes.
Polar ice is melting and changing Earth's rotation. It's messing with time itself
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.