The Trop was a shelter for First Responders and residents.
They were relocated before the storm hit... at least that's what DeSantis said. Thankfully.
“As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they re-deployed them out of Tropicana,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tallahassee. “There were no state assets that were in Tropicana Field, I think Duke also removed all their assets as well.”
The roof was made of “six acres of translucent, Teflon-coated fiberglass and supports itself with 180 miles of cables connected by struts,” according to the Tampa Bay Rays media guide, and was “built to withstand winds of up to 115 mph.”
Now, DeSantis said, “the roof is basically like a fabric.” He said the state “understood” the stadium’s roof was not built to withstand winds of more than 110 mph, so state officials “acted accordingly” and moved the staging area out of there.
The state’s staging area was relocated to Jacksonville around midnight on Tuesday, DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern told the Times/Herald. Hurricane Milton made landfall at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.