Man left with concussion after tornado: ‘I’m lucky I’m not dead’

It’s been a crazy week of weather here in the Northwest, punctuated by a rare tornado in Port Orchard Tuesday afternoon. And despite most people getting away with a few bumps and bruises, one man was lucky to get out with his life intact.

RELATED: Tornado damages 250 homes in Kitsap County

Brandon O’Neal is a resident superintendent for Richmond American Homes construction. He was inside his trailer when wind and rain started to kick up, and went over to the window to investigate.

“I saw all my workers run, and all of the sudden my trailer shifted a little bit, and it just started rolling,” O’Neal told KIRO Radio’s Lisa Brooks.

O’Neal’s trailer was picked up and rolled, throwing him against the wall, as anything not nailed down suddenly flew into the air.

“All of the sudden I’m on the ceiling, then I’m on the other wall, just kind of in a rock tumbler of craziness,” he described.

He was soon knocked unconscious in the mayhem, before emergency services came down to find him.

“They got to me and I was down there throwing up, just in pain and shock and shaking,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal came out of the incident with a concussion, but nothing that medics deemed to be life-threatening.

That being so, it was no small feat that he survived the incident, much less came out with the ability to walk.

I was beat up pretty good — they said it was a miracle, especially looking at the pictures with all that debris in that trailer with me tumbling around; shelves, microwave, printer, desk, all of this stuff tumbling around in there with me. They said I should be at least paralyzed. I’m lucky I’m not dead.

In total, Tuesday’s tornado damaged approximately 250 homes, while roughly 1,400 were left without power at the time.

RELATED: Tornadoes in Washington more common than you think

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