Hurricane Milton's strong winds rips off the roof of Rays' Tropicana Field
Hurricane Milton’s powerful winds ripped the roof off the Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays. The ballpark had been set up for use by first responders dealing with the storm.
Overhead videos and still photos showed the roof torn off by Milton’s 100-plus mph winds on Wednesday night into Thursday morning. In one video, you can see into the ballpark and pieces of the panel’s layered onto the stands and field. It’s unclear if the interior of the stadium suffered any major damage.
The roof on top of the ballpark was made to absorb winds up to 115 mph, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. As weather reports surfaced that wind gusts were going to exceed the standard, workers and equipment were removed from Tropicana Field.
The roof, according to the team's media guide, is made of "six acres of translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass and supports itself with 180 miles of cables connected by struts."
"As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they redeployed them out of Tropicana," DeSantis told reporters on Thursday. "There were no state assets that were in Tropicana Field."
Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Tampa Buccaneers, was overcome with water. The field looked like a lake due to Milton’s heavy rains that pumbeled the area. Unlike Tropicana Field, the stadium does not have a roof.
The Buccaneers are on the road this week, playing the New Orleans Saints.
Hurricane Milton formed in recent days over the Gulf of Mexico, and it quickly became a Category 5 storm. It made landfall near Sarasota, Florida, as a Category 3 hurricane. Meteorologists warned that the storm surge from Milton could reach up to 13 feet in some areas throughout the Tampa Bay region, which led to dire warnings from government, state, and city officials in the days leading up to the powerful storm.
