FOX Weather Correspondent Robert Ray and his team give a raw, behind-the-scenes look from Bradenton, Florida, as powerful wind blew rain and debris at them. Winds gusting over 80 mph were measured nearby. Oct. 9, 2024.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Hurricane Milton slammed the Tampa-St. Petersburg area with over 100 mph wind gusts and torrential rain Wednesday, knocking out power to well over a million in the metro area and damaging the home of the city’s baseball team.
St. Petersburg’s airport reported more than three hours of gusts over 70 mph, including seven gusts over 90 mph and a peak gust of 101 mph just after 10:30 p.m. ET.
The ferocious winds caused significant damage to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where video showed massive tears in the stadium’s fabric roof. The facility is home to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Tropicana Field was being used as a temporary staging location for hundreds of first responders. According to local authorities, there were no reports of any injuries associated with the damage to the stadium.
Tampa International Airport recorded a peak gust of 83 mph so far. Power outages reached over 1.25 million customers just in Hillsborough and Pinellas County alone, according to PowerOutage.us.
Milton roared onshore just south of the St. Petersburg area in Siesta Key on Wednesday evening as a major Category 3 storm. But while the southern landfall spared the area from a feared record storm surge in Tampa Bay, flooding became an issue anyway as Milton dumped several inches of rain in minutes.
A Flash Flood Emergency covered 2 million people in the metro area. Over 5 inches of rain fell in one hour in St. Petersburg’s Albert Whitted Airport, over 10 inches in 3.5 hours, and 18 inches in 24 hours.
FOX Weather Meteorologist Steve Bender reports from Tampa where gusts over 80 mph have left over 1 million in the metro area without power and a Flash Flood Emergency amid several inches of rain.
“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” the National Weather Service warned. “Seek higher ground now!”
Updates to follow.