Menu

Topics

Connect

Comments

Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.

Calgary woman traumatized after being trapped in tipped-over porta-potty following windstorm

WATCH: It was an unimaginable ordeal, and just plain disgusting. A woman was trapped inside a porta-potty after it tipped over in last weekend's sudden wind storm in Calgary. Jill Croteau explains how it happened – Jul 30, 2019

Cecilia Mwalyoga was left feeling disgusted and humiliated after what was supposed to be a memorable event with her boyfriend’s family visiting from Germany.

Story continues below advertisement

“I’ve been having nightmares,” she said Tuesday.

Mwalyoga, her boyfriend Stefan Schulze Kalthoff and their five-week-old daughter took his parents to the Wings Over Springbank Airshow on Saturday, July 27.

Intense winds forced a sudden cancellation and spectators were sent away. But before they left, Cecilia had to make a pit stop at the portable toilets.

“I felt the wind move it a little bit. As soon as I was trying to sit, the whole thing just went on my back and the door facing downwards and I could feel all the water and everything falling on me. It was gross,” Mwalyoga recalled.

“I was screaming my lungs off.”

Tipped-over toilets. Courtesy: Stefan Schulze Kalthoff
“I saw all the washrooms falling down and I thought I was getting a heart attack. It [was] crazy because I know Cecilia is in one of those washrooms,” Schulze Kalthoff said.
Story continues below advertisement

“There were five or six of them and they all tipped over. That’s why they couldn’t find me. They didn’t know which one I was in,” Mwalyoga said.

Her boyfriend and his father scrambled to hoist it up enough for Mwalyoga to crawl out.

“Oh my gosh. It was stinking like crazy,” Mwalyoga said. “It was awful and I’m thinking, ‘All this dirty water on me, am I going to get [a] disease?'”

Cecilia in the back of an ambulance. Courtesy: Stefan Schulze Kalthoff

“I was a mess. My hair had some toilet paper in it and I had blue water, pee water. I saw some needles there. It was gross,” she added.

Story continues below advertisement
Needles on the pavement. Courtesy: Stefan Schulze Kalthoff

Beyond being humiliated, she was worried about potential injuries. She suffered some bruises and is still sore.

“I had almost a two-hour shower. I was in the shower for the longest time,” she said.

The wind was exceptionally bad that day. Video submitted to Global News showed bouncy castles at the airshow taking flight.

Story continues below advertisement

It has left the couple wondering about those porta-potties and their lack of stability to withstand the wind.

“Nothing was anchored down, no weights on them. The only weight was the pee and poo and chemicals,” Mwalyoga said.

“What happened if we stood closer to those toilets and those 100-kilogram toilets would have fallen on our stroller?” Schulze Kalthoff said.

Airshow organizers didn’t respond to Global News following a request for comment. Super Save Toilet Rentals said its spokesperson was out of the province and couldn’t issue a response.

Base of portable toilet. Courtesy: Stefan Schulze Kalthoff

Schulze Kalthoff said he’s disappointed with how officials have handled this ordeal.

Story continues below advertisement

“They do customer claims and I left two messages and they never answered me back and Springbank they said they hired this out to separate company so it’s not their responsibility to deal with this,” he said.

Advertisement

You are viewing an Accelerated Mobile Webpage.

View Original Article