By Sarah Roebuck
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. 鈥� Ahead of Hurricane Milton鈥檚 arrival, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, had been transformed into a base camp for thousands of emergency responders.
But as Hurricane Milton made landfall late Wednesday night as a powerful Category 3 storm, fierce winds ripped through the roof of Tropicana Field, home of Major League Baseball鈥檚 Tampa Bay Rays, .
Tropicana Field was set up for linemen & first responders & tonight roof was ripped off by Hurricane Milton
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy)
In preparation for the storm, that Tropicana Field was being turned into a base camp for 10,000 emergency workers to assist with debris cleanup and post-hurricane response efforts. On Thursday morning, his spokesperson,that the staging area had been moved to Jacksonville.
Tropicana Field鈥檚 roof was designed to endure winds up to 115 miles per hour, . By 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, wind speeds in St. Petersburg had reached 101 miles per hour.