Hurricane Milton Destroys Roof Of Tropicana Field After DeSantis Moves Resources To New Location

Hurricane Milton damaged the roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. The Category 3 storm’s high winds tore off the domed roof’s fabric.

No injuries at the stadium were reported and the fire department made contact with those who remained safely inside. Before Milton’s landfall, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced plans for the stadium to serve as a “temporary base camp” to support debris cleanup operations and house first responders. However, these plans were canceled due to concerns that the roof would not withstand the winds.

“They were relocated,” DeSantis said of the people and resources inside the stadium during a conference on Thursday. “Tropicana Field is a routine staging area for these things. The roof on that, I think it’s rated for 110 miles-per-hour and so the forecast changes, but 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. There were no state assets that were inside Tropicana Field.”

On Monday, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned residents that if they did not evacuate ahead of the storm, they were “going to die.”

DeSantis said on Thursday that while Milton was a horrific storm, Tampa did not see “the worst-case scenario,” explaining that Sarasota County experienced the brunt of the hurricane. However, Tampa was still flooded and St. Petersburg recorded more than 16 inches of rain.

Ninety minutes after making landfall on Wednesday, Hurricane Milton was downgraded from a Category 3 to a Category 2 storm. By Wednesday evening, it had maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour.

In anticipation of Milton, college, high school and professional sporting events were canceled, including the faceoff between the Orlando Magic and New Orleans Pelicans.