Hurricane Milton: Tropicana Field roof sustains severe damage as storm makes landfall

As Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida Wednesday night, Tampa took the brunt of it. Tropicana Field – home of the Tampa Bay Rays – notably sustained damage.

Video showed parts of the roof flying away in the strong winds, estimated around 120 miles per hour, as the storm started to take its toll on Tampa. The stadium was set to be used as a base camp for first responders during the storm with beds set up across the field.

Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night, according to the AP, after getting as strong as Category 5 over the Gulf of Mexico. A Category 3 Hurricane has wind speeds between 111 and 129 miles per hour, but surge levels could go as high as 8-12 feet, according to The Weather Channel.

It keeps getting worse pic.twitter.com/OCwaxAiDmY

— Bill Carl Johnson (@BC_Johnson) October 10, 2024

Evacuations were underway throughout the week as residents made preparations for the major storm to hit Florida’s West Coast and make its way across the state. It’s also making an impact on the sports world as teams in Florida drew up contingency plans.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were forced to evacuate ahead of this week’s game against the New Orleans Saints and left Tuesday after changing travel plans. They relocated all team operations to New Orleans as the storm made its way toward Tampa and Florida’s West Coast.

“In advance of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall, the Buccaneers will depart Tampa on Tuesday morning,” Tampa Bay Buccaneers Communications posted on Twitter. “The team will relocate operations to the New Orleans area for the remainder of the week leading up to Sunday’s game at the Saints. Media availabilities will be conducted virtually beginning on Wednesday.”

USF and Memphis also moved their game to Saturday, weather permitting, instead of the scheduled Friday night kickoff. As for Florida, the Gators are navigating game prep for the Tennessee matchup while also dealing with the evacuations. Billy Napier said multiple players’ families will be impacted by Hurricane Milton, and the program is monitoring the situation closely.

“Probably the most challenging part which you described there is a lot of these guys’ families are right in the thick of it down south,” Napier said. “So I think we’ve been touching base with them throughout the entire week, trying to provide them with the most up-to-date information we have.

“Done quite a bit of planning in terms of what they need to be doing here to anticipate what’s coming. Then we’ll be there as an organization and athletic department to fully support the players and any family situations where we can help. But there’s no question that we’ll have a lot of people that will be significantly affected by this hurricane.”