Hurricane Milton: Work to assess reconstruction cost begins

Early reports suggest that the hurricane could result in losses of up to $100 billion for the global insurance industry, after Milton made landfall as a category 3 hurricane on Wednesday night at around 830pm near Siesta Key.

The storm tracked a path across Florida over the next eight hours before moving off over the ocean just north of Cape Canaveral as a category 1 hurricane. It subjected the region to tornadoes, flooding, strong winds and storm surge, with areas including Fort Myers, Sarasota, St Petersburg and St Lucie some of the worst affected. It resulted in at least 14 confirmed deaths.

In one of the most high-profile examples of the destruction wrought by the hurricane, Tropicana Field, a baseball stadium in St. Petersburg that is home to the Tampa Bay Rays lost its roof, which is made up of a non-retractable, translucent fiberglass membrane.

The Major League Baseball team said yesterday (Thursday) that it could take weeks to assess the damage to the roof.

In a statement on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the Rays said, “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.”

A collapse construction crane in St. Petersburg, Florida, US, following Hurrican Milton (Image: City of St. Petersburg, Florida via Facebook/via REUTERS)

Downtown St. Petersburg also saw the collapse of a construction crane. The crane had been on use in the construction of a 46-storey condominium and office building, which will reportedly be the tallest residential building on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The crane fell onto a building that houses the Tampa Bay Times newspaper.

Around 100 homes are also thought to have been destroyed by the hurricane. And the office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis indicated yesterday that the Florida Department of Transportation has over 2,000 team members working on storm response.

Damage assessment teams are already in the field to survey impacts and FDOT has activated road and bridge contractors to assist with ‘cut and toss’ operations to clear debris with the help of over 500 pieces of heavy equipment.

A total of 150 bridge inspectors were also dispatched at first light after the storm to inspect bridges across the impact areas.

However, in a statement to media, DeSantis said, “The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst case scenario.” Some neighborhoods experienced significant flooding. But the Tampa Bay area appeared to have escaped the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings.