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Hurricane Milton crane collapse: Why city leaders say it wasn’t taken down before the storm

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Published  February 14, 2025 6:48pm EST
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

St. Pete evaluates crane safety after Milton

Kailey Tracy reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - On the night Hurricane Milton hit, Taylor Dove’s biggest worry became a reality.

"My heart kind of dropped to my stomach, because the entire night, the only anxiety I had was that the crane was going to fall," she said.

RELATED: New questions over why crane fell during Hurricane Milton

No one was hurt when the crane from the 400 Central construction site fell into an office building. Dove lives just a couple of blocks away.

It raised a lot of questions from neighbors who wanted to know why it wasn’t taken down before Milton slammed the city with winds of more than 100 miles per hour.

"At first, I think it was incredibly frustrating. We felt like our leaders did not have our back," Dove said.

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What they're saying:

"People were scared, and I had to look them in the eye and say, ‘right now, there is nothing that we can do to protect you,’" Council Member Gina Driscoll, who represents downtown St. Pete, said describing a recent community meeting. "That is a really tough thing for a city council member to have to do."

Why you should care:

State law prohibits cities and counties from regulating cranes, even in hurricane season. St. Pete leaders said that needs to change.

"There does need to be some reform at the state level and the Florida Building Commission that way we can have kind of a uniform, consistent approach with all the different jurisdictions in Florida," Don Tyre, the city’s building official, said. 

Thursday, the St. Pete Public Services and Infrastructure Committee voted to draft a resolution that would repeal and replace the state’s crane statute with something, city leaders said, as simple as requiring that cranes be designed to withstand the same wind speeds as the buildings they’re attached to.

PREVIOUS: St. Petersburg construction crane falls from high rise during Hurricane Milton

Two state lawmakers also filed a bill proposing the repeal of the state’s crane statute. 

"It feels nice to know that they seem to be going to bat for our community and trying to make sure that they can get the right laws into place to keep us safe," Dove said. "I think that in addition to getting the cranes to the same wind speed as the building, there needs to be a better notification system because it was literally paper fliers. It wasn't even posted on every door in our building."

Driscoll agrees. 

"In some cases, it was just a sign on a wall, and hopefully everybody sees it. And the mayor in a press conference saying, ‘maybe you want to go into a stairwell,’" Driscoll said. "You have folks who are caught off guard. They thought they were planning things right. Suddenly, they're scared."

Dig deeper:

City staff said they now will ask contractors at the beginning of development to give them information about the cranes they plan to use, so they’re more proactive about looking at those sites before a storm. They can’t force contractors to give them that information, though, because of the state’s law related to cranes.

READ: St. Petersburg residents could face code violations amid hurricane rebuilds

"That's something we've learned, and we will adjust that," City Administrator James Corbett said. "I do absolutely agree that we can notify residents when our project is in the initial stages that, ‘hey, you have a project within your area, it has a crane. And if the crane were to fail, you potentially …,’ we could tell them that in the beginning."

With more and more cranes and buildings going up in St. Pete, Dove and Driscoll said changes are needed.

"What if that had been a residential building? We can't stop it from happening, but we can try to do better to help residents prepare. And we can push really hard for some assistance on the state level," Driscoll said Thursday. 

"I can only imagine if that had been an apartment building. Someone would have died," Dove said.

Friday, Driscoll said in a statement, "Keeping residents safe is a top priority, but without the ability to have regulations there is little we can do. I hope state lawmakers will take reasonable steps to change the building code and make construction sites safer for Floridians who live in these vulnerable areas."

The other side:

FOX 13 asked Governor Ron DeSantis about crane regulations when he visited St. Pete after Milton.

"I think the question is should there be more regulation or should there just be more common sense. I mean, do we have to regulate everything? I mean, I think most people take the cranes down. I know. Kevin [Guthrie], isn't that the standard practice? I don't think we've had to mandate that," DeSantis said in October. 

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from St. Pete leaders, residents and previous FOX 13 News reports. 

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