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Strong winds from Hurricane Milton tore and shattered the canvas roof of Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, as it slammed into Florida on Wednesday night.
Video footage shows the fabric fluttering in the strong windexposing the lights and stadium interior to extreme weather. The the roof was built to withstand the winds up to 115 mph, according to the team’s media guide.
Located in St. Petersburg, Fla., Tropicana Field would serve as a staging area for thousands of utility workers and National Guard members in preparation for the storm, local CBS affiliate WTSP reported. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said on social media that the scene area was moved before the roof was damaged. No injuries were reported at the stadium.
Built in 1990, Tropicana Field has served as the Rays’ home base since the team’s inaugural season in 1998. In 2023, the franchise announced would build a new stadium in the area at a total cost of $1.2 billion, half of which will come from taxpayer funds.
In July, Sweden-based Skanska announced that its US program management and consulting group would represent the owner of the 6.5 billion dollar redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant property surrounding the new stadium. Skanska will also act as the owner’s representative for the design and construction of the new stadium.
A crane sits in the street after crashing into the building that houses the offices of the Tampa Bay Times following the landfall of Hurricane Milton on October 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
After reaching Category 5, Milton made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm south of Tampa Bay in Siesta Key, Florida. The hurricane had sustained winds of 120 mph when it made landfall, but its strength weakened to a Category 1 as it moved inland across the state. The storm flooded streets in the densely populated area of Tampa, even as it escaped the devastating storm surge.
Even so, four deaths have been reported so faraccording to the New York Times. More than 3.2 million customers were without power in Florida early Thursday. according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
Milton’s strong winds also generated dangerous tornadoes that spun across the state and destroyed houses. As of Wednesday night, there were at least 116 tornado warnings issued across Florida and 19 tornadoes confirmed in the state, the New York Times reported.
Collapse of the crane
In addition to the destruction of the city, a construction crane collapsed in strong winds Wednesday night on a office building in the center of St. Petersburgleaving a gaping hole in the structure that houses many offices, including the Tampa Bay Times.
The the crane of the Residences at 400 de la Central fella 46-story condominium high-rise being built across from the office, according to a city news release. No injuries were reported.
The damaged crane was on 1st Avenue South early Thursday, completely blocking the street, according to the Tampa Bay Times. John Catsimatidis, CEO of Red Apple Group, which is developing the 400 Central skyscraper, told the Tampa Bay Times that his company is working with city leaders and others to assess the situation.
A city building official said the three cranes at 400 Central were rated to withstand winds of up to 110 mph, the Tampa Bay Times reported. At 515 feet tall when completed, the building will be the tallest in the city and the tallest residential tower on Florida’s Gulf Coast, according to the newspaper.
the building surpassed last monthaccording to the Tampa Bay Times. Designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, it is expected to be completed by summer 2025, according to the property’s website.
At a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Ken Welch warned residents about several tower cranes in use throughout the city that could not be dismantled in time for the storm. The cranes were put in vane modewhich makes them safe in gusts up to 100 mph, Fox 13 reported.
“This was a tropical storm that became one of the strongest storms in our nation’s history very quickly, so we are learning things that we will use to update our processes and procedures in the future, but there is no there’s a window of time to bring those cranes down,” Welch said.
