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Crane collapses in St. Pete during Hurricane Milton; roof ripped off at Tropicana Field
FOX 13's Kailey Tracy reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - St. Petersburg experienced the most significant rain event during Hurricane Milton that the city has ever seen, officials said.
Eighteen inches of rain fell during the storm and sustained winds were at 83 miles per hour. The highest gust recorded was 101 mph from the Albert Whitted tower.
There wasn’t storm surge for the low-lying areas, but there was localized flooding. St. Pete police officers and city crews started accessing damage at daybreak. City officials are still encouraging residents to stay off the roads until public safety officials deem it safe.
READ: Tropicana Field roof ripped off by Hurricane Milton
"I know folks are anxious to get back to their homes to check out damage and to start cleaning out debris, but please be patient," St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch said. "This is for your safety. The more space our crews have to do their work, the faster we can restore services to our community."
According to Welch, there were hundreds of downed trees across the city that pulled down powerlines and 100 traffic signals were still out around 5 p.m. Thursday. There were also three fires overnight while first responders weren’t able to answer calls. Thankfully, no one was injured in the fires.
"This was a storm that intensified quickly and gave us very little time to prepare, but we made it through the storm," Welch said. "We started the recovery, and we will be successful. I ask that everyone continue to be patient and lean on each other during this time. Be a good neighbor. Offer help where you can and know that we will come back from this challenge stronger and more resilient than ever before."
PREVIOUS: All St. Petersburg sewer treatment plants back online after Hurricane Milton
Thursday morning, the two sewer treatment plants that went offline were restored. Potable water also was restored Thursday morning after the city had to turn off drinking water around midnight because of 30 water line breaks. There is still a boil water notice in effect city-wide, though, as of Thursday evening.
"We didn't have any surge-related flooding … but we did experience approximately 18 inches of rain in a short period of time, which, my understanding is, it's one of the most significant rain events the city has ever seen," City Administrator Rob Gerdes said. "So, we do have flooding in other parts of the city. We are still reviewing whether there were any homes damaged."
Damage assessments for homes start Friday.
READ: St. Petersburg construction crane falls from high rise during Hurricane Milton
As of 5p.m. Thursday, 70% of Pinellas County was still without power. That’s about 405,000 people and 141,000 were in St. Pete, according to Duke Energy. Duke said crews from as far away as Canada are here to help. Duke’s spokesperson said this will be a lengthy restoration due to the extent of the damage to the power system.
Some people could get power back as early as Friday, and others it may be a week or longer before power is restored. Duke is working to pinpoint a better timeline for customers.
Thursday, the National Guard and state and federal crews helped city crews with debris cleanup. They cleared debris out of all the main streets. Friday, they’ll start with secondary streets, city officials said. The silver lining, they said, is debris from Hurricane Helene didn’t move as much as they thought it would. The debris cleanup is a "big lift" for the city, officials said.
City staff said it wants to remind residents not to bag their debris. Residents can report damage. For downed trees, text (727) 435-7349, or submit to the city’s See Click Fix feature. Anyone can report power outages on Duke Energy’s website. Call (727) 893-7111 with questions about either.
MORE: Hurricane Milton aftermath: Millions without power as deaths, flooding reported
The high wind speeds were enough to blow off the Tropicana Field’s roof. According to James Corbett, St. Pete’s development administrator, 14 people were inside when it happened. They were security and others associated with Tropicana. They safely relocated to another part of the building.
First responders and lineman who had staged there before the storm with the state left before Milton, the city said. A Duke Energy spokesperson said they staged their crews in different parts of the state ahead of Milton, because they didn’t feel comfortable with the predicted conditions in St. Pete.
The Tampa Bay Rays posted a statement, saying, "During the past couple of weeks, our beloved city, region and state have been impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We are devastated by the damage incurred by so many. Our priority is supporting our community and our staff. We are fortunate and grateful that no one was hurt by the damage to our ballpark last night. Over the coming days and weeks, we expect to be able to assess the true condition of Tropicana Field. In the meantime, we are working with law enforcement to secure the building."
"We ask for your patience at this time, and we encourage those who can to donate to organizations in our community that are assisting those directly impacted by these storms," the statement said.
READ: Hurricane Milton brings extensive flooding to Tampa’s University Area neighborhood
Not too far away, winds caused a crane to collapse from the 400 Central building construction site into an office building. No one was injured. The city has closed off streets around the crane from First Avenue North to First Avenue South and Third Street to Fifth Street.
Developer Cats Red Apple St. Pete said in a statement one crane cab and the upper section of the mast fell.
"We are working with city officials and others to assess the situation," the developer said.
The city said it’s the developer and contractor’s responsibility to remove the crane, and they have liability insurance to protect any surrounding buildings. They’ll have to bring in another crane to remove the parts of the crane that fell. The process will most likely take a few days.
MORE: Possible sinkhole nearly swallows two Polk County homes after Hurricane Milton
The contractor and developer are flying in an engineer to check the other two cranes at the site before they put them back in service, which is a mandatory requirement, the city said. Officials said the tower cranes, the taller ones, take specialized crews weeks to schedule to disassemble and there wasn’t enough time before Milton to do so.
City staff alerted residents and businesses in the area of 400 Central and three other construction sites with tower cranes that the city was concerned about before Milton.
"It was a devastating thing when it fell, but with a failure like that, it's probably the best case scenario," Donald Tyre, St. Pete’s building official, said. "If it would have pulled the entire tower off, it would have probably fallen about 6 or 700 feet away and probably impacted a number of different buildings."
"There's really no regulation that we have locally in place to dictate that you have to use a certain design wind speed for your cranes. That's something that we could definitely look at in the future, but you have to remember, this is an incident that we haven't seen, the wind speeds here [that high], you know, in 50 years at least and not in recent history anyway. So, it’s really just a devastating event that happened due to the wind speed from the storm," he said.
Representatives from 400 Central were at the site Thursday assessing the situation.
In a statement to FOX 13 on Thursday afternoon, John Catsimatidis Sr., the founder of Red Apple Real Estate and principal of the company that is sponsoring the development shared, "We are grateful that no one was injured in the area, and that the only damage was to bricks and not to people."
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