Hurricane Milton’s high winds tore off and shredded the canvas roof of Tropicana Field, the home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, as it slammed into Florida on Wednesday night.
Video footage shows fabric fluttering in the intense winds, exposing the stadium lights and interior to the extreme weather. The roof was built to withstand winds of up to 115 mph, according to the team’s media guide.
Located in St. Petersburg, Florida, Tropicana Field was going to 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 staging area was relocated before the roof was damaged. No injuries have been 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 it 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 its U.S. program management and consulting group would serve as the owner’s representative of the $6.5 billion redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant property surrounding the new stadium. Skanska will also serve as the owner’s representative for the design and construction of the new stadium.
A crane sits on the street after crashing down into the building housing the Tampa Bay Times offices after the arrival of Hurricane Milton on Oct. 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
After reaching Category 5 strength, 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 as it arrived on land, but its strength diminished to Category 1 as it moved inland across the state. The storm flooded streets in the heavily populated Tampa area, even while it escaped devastating storm surge.
Still, four people have been reported dead so far, according 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 high winds also spawned dangerous tornadoes that spun across the state and destroyed homes. There were at least 116 tornado warnings issued across Florida by Wednesday night, and 19 confirmed tornados in the state, the New York Times reported.
Crane collapse
Adding to the destruction in the city, a construction crane collapsed in high winds Wednesday night onto an office building in downtown St. Petersburg, leaving a gaping hole in the structure that houses many offices, including the Tampa Bay Times.
The crane fell from the Residences at 400 Central, a 46-story condominium skyscraper being built across from the office, according to a city news release. No injuries were reported.
The damaged crane lay across 1st Avenue South early Thursday, completely blocking the street, according to the Tampa Bay Times. John Catsimatidis, the 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 that the three cranes at 400 Central were rated to withstand up to 110 mph winds, the Tampa Bay Times reported. At a height of 515 feet when complete, the building will be the tallest in the city and the highest residential tower on Florida’s Gulf Coast, according to the newspaper.
The building topped out last month, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, it is expected to be complete in summer 2025, according to the property website.
In a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Ken Welch warned residents about multiple tower cranes in use throughout the city, which could not be dismantled in time for the storm. The cranes were put into weathervane mode, which makes them safe in up to 100-mph gusts, Fox 13 reported.
“This was a tropical storm that turned into one of the strongest storms in our nation’s history very rapidly, so we’re learning things that we’re going to use to update our processes and procedures going forward, but there’s just no way in this window of time to bring those cranes down,” Welch said.
