Milton Rips Roof Off Tampa Bay Rays' Stadium

Hurricane Milton lashed Florida with powerful winds after making landfall Wednesday night and while the extent of damage may not be clear until morning, one high-profile casualty was the roof at the Tampa Bay Rays' stadium. Winds ripped off the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg after the hurricane made landfall as a Category 3 storm around 8:30pm, ABC Action News reports. The stadium had been set up as a shelter and staging area for thousands of first responders and National Guard troops, but no injuries were reported.

Tropicana Field, built in 1990, has been the home of the Tampa Bay Rays since the franchise entered Major League Baseball in 1997, SI.com reports. It was designed with a slanted roof to protect against hurricane damage and survived many strong storms before Milton hit, Bleacher Report notes. "OMG. We all had a collected gasp when we saw this from our reporter," WFTS meteorologist Jason Adams said in a post on X, sharing video of the damage. "The fabric on the roof of Tropicana Field is shredded." (More Hurricane Milton stories.)