Crane Crashes Into Office Building During Hurricane Milton

The Tampa Bay Times reported on the damage from Hurricane Milton firsthand as the storm sent a construction crane crashing into the paper’s office building on Wednesday night. The crane reportedly collapsed in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida as the historic hurricane hit the shore. It fell from a 46-story skyscraper and collided with the building across the street, which housed offices for the Times along with other businesses.

The crane did some serious damage to the building it struck, but thankfully it had been closed and evacuated before the storm. No injuries were reported at the site and no one was believed to be inside. The building itself still stands, but the exterior has been gouged by the falling debris and city officials say the area is not safe at this time. The crane itself was completely blocking the street – 1st Avenue South – as of Thursday morning.

Safety officials were apparently concerned about the crane before the storm even made landfall. On Tuesday, St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch issued a statement asking residents near the active construction sites in town to relocate if they were not evacuating. In addition to this crane, there were two others in the city – one downtown and one near the Carillon area. The cranes were reportedly rated to withstand winds of up to 110 miles per hour, and according to a report by The Associated Press, Milton’s wind speed at least exceeded 100 miles per hour.

The crane fell from the tallest building in St. Petersburg at 515 vertical feet. It’s the tallest residential building on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Meanwhile, the building that was hit is just eight stories tall, with 250,000 square feet of total space. The Times‘ parent company sold the building to Convergent Capital Partners and Denholtz Associates in 2016, but the paper remained a tenant.

Hurricane Milton left at least four people dead in Florida, but the damage and injuries have not yet been accounted for. The storm cut off electricity for at least 3 million customers and caused extensive wind damage in addition to the predicted flooding. The worst storm surge seems to have been in Sarasota County, where the water rose approximately ten feet at its worst. With two major hurricanes in the last two weeks, Florida has a long road to recovery ahead of it.