Tampa Bay Times building smashed by crane in horror footage as Hurricane Milton ravages Florida

A crane has fallen smashing into the building of the Tampa Bay Times in downtown St Petersburg as Hurricane Milton batters the state.

Posting footage of the aftermath on X, formerly Twitter , one user wrote: "Crane fell and crashed into the Tampa Bay Times building 3 blocks from where I live in Downtown St. Pete. Hurricane Milton really came and did some damage. "

In the video, the twisted remains of a crane can be seen strewn across the floor amid the destruction. Millions have been left without power and deaths reported as extreme weather tears across the state.

Hurricane Milton first responders hunker down as locals told help won't come as deadly storm rages

Fire officials say the crane collapsed in downtown St. Petersburg, but there are no reports of injuries.

The crane was at the site of a 515-foot-tall luxury high-rise building under construction that is being billed as one of the tallest buildings on the west coast of Florida. It was scheduled to be completed in summer 2025.

St. Petersburg Fire Rescue issued a statement saying the crane collapse and roof damage at Tropicana Field were among two critical reports it had received of damage after Hurricane Milton made landfall south of the city.

The site of the crane collapse is about six blocks from the city’s pier. St. Petersburg is about 50 miles north of Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall.

Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, appears to be badly damaged from the hurricane.

Television images showed that the fabric that serves as Tropicana Field’s roof had been ripped to shreds. It was not immediately clear if there was damage inside the stadium.

The Rays’ stadium was not being used as a shelter, but the Tampa Bay Times reported that it was being used as “a staging site for workers” who were brought to the area to deal with the storm’s aftermath.

The stadium opened in 1990 and initially cost $138 million. It was due to be replaced in time for the 2028 season with a $1.3 billion ballpark.

Over 2 million customers are without power as Hurricane Milton cut a path through central Florida late Wednesday night, according to the website PowerOutages.us .

Energy companies serve more than 11.5 million customer accounts statewide, according to the website. The number of people left without electricity continued to grow as hurricane-spawned tornados, sustained tropical winds and flooding inundated the region.

Nearly 100% of customers in Hardee County were without power, and people in Sarasota, Manatee and Pinella counties were also hit hard by outages.

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Before Milton even made landfall Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, tornadoes were touching down across the state. The Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, was hit particularly hard, destroying homes and leaving some residents dead.

“We have lost some life,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told WPBF News . He did not say how many people were killed.