Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field, home of baseball's Tampa Bay Rays

Hurricane Milton's strong winds on Wednesday night severely damaged the roof of the Tampa Bay Rays' home ballpark, Tropicana Field, which was set up for use by workers in response to the storm.

Overhead television and still images of St. Petersburg's domed stadium showed large sections of its paneled roof torn off by 100-place mph winds.

The stadium's playing field and stands can be seen in the overdubbed footage, where the panels once stood. It was not immediately clear if there was any major damage inside the stadium.

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A construction crane at 400 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg, about three-quarters of a mile from Tropicana Field, also collapsed due to high winds, officials said.

No injuries were immediately reported from that area of ​​downtown St. Petersburg, according to a city statement.

As recently as Tuesday afternoon, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said it was “establishing a 10,000-person base camp at Tropicana Field to support ongoing debris operations and post-landfall responders.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the roof was designed to absorb winds up to 110 miles per hour. And with predicted gusts topping that value, workers and equipment were evacuated from the Tropicana field, he added.

“As it became clear that something of that magnitude was going to happen in the distance, they redeployed them from the Tropicana,” DeSantis told reporters Thursday. “There were no state assets at Tropicana Field.”

The stadium opened in 1990 and is usually busy with playoff baseball games as recently as October, but not this year.

Finished 80-82 this past season in their first campaign under .500 since 2017. Tampa Bay missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.