Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, and the storm caused significant damage throughout the state. The storm was officially classified as a Category 3 hurricane as it hit Florida’s Gulf Coast. One of the venues that fell victim to Milton was the domed stadium of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, Tropicana Field.
Pictures and videos on various social media platforms showed the stadium’s roof being ripped apart by Milton’s strong winds. Multiple panels of the dome were seen being pulled off the stadium and flying in the air. The damage left a hole in the roof and heavy rain poured into the arena.
Before the damage from the storm, Tropicana Field was designated as an integral part of the city’s emergency services hurricane response. The stadium was arranged to hold 10,000 people seeking refuge from the storm and set up as a “staging site for first responders and state and local emergency management services aiding with debris removal,” ESPN reported. The site was to include cots set up on the field to accommodate people injured in the storm.
No injuries have been reported at the stadium due to the roof’s destruction by the hurricane.
A Tropicana Field spokesperson confirmed that “no first responders were being staged at the Trop and the essential personnel that were there are all accounted for and safe,” Fox 13 News reported.
Hurricane Milton has left a path of destruction in its wake throughout the state. One particular harrowing incident involved hurricane winds causing the collapse of a crane at a construction site in St. Petersburg, Florida. Videos of this accident also made its rounds on social media. Fortunately, no injuries were reported due to this accident, officials confirmed.
Additionally, over 2.6 million people were reportedly without power due to the hurricane.
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Hurricane Milton dumped over 17 inches of rain in St. Petersburg, according to multiple reports, and the National Weather Service issued flash flooding warnings for the area. The rainfall and subsequent flooding was considered a 1-in-500-year event (meaning that there is a 0.2% chance such an event happens annually) reported 10 Tampa Bay, a local CBS affiliate.
“This is an area that maybe isn’t accustomed to seeing rainfall like this,” 10 Tampa Bay meteorologist Chris Vickers said. “It is all coming down so quickly. It is all coming down at two, three, or four inches an hour.”
