A construction crane collapsed in Hurricane Milton’s high winds Wednesday night onto an office building in downtown St. Petersburg.
The crane fell from The Residences at 400 Central, a 46-story condominium skyscraper being built across from the office, as the storm lashed the area, according to a city news release. No injuries were reported from the collapse.
The damaged crane lay across 1st Avenue South early Thursday, completely blocking the street, according to the Tampa Bay Times. John Catsimatidis, the CEO of Red Apple Group, which is developing the 400 Central skyscraper, told the Tampa Bay Times that his company is working with city leaders and others to assess the situation.
A city building official said that the three cranes at 400 Central were rated to withstand up to 110 mph winds, the Tampa Bay Times reported. At a height of 515 feet when complete, the building will be the tallest in the city and the highest residential tower on Florida’s Gulf Coast, according to the newspaper.
The building topped out last month, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, it is expected to be complete in summer 2025, according to the property website.
After reaching Category 5 strength, Milton made landfall Wednesday evening as a Category 3 storm south of Tampa Bay in Siesta Key, Florida. The hurricane had sustained winds of 120 mph as it arrived on land, but its strength diminished to Category 1 as it moved inland across the state.
More than 3.2 million customers were without power in Florida early Thursday, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.
In a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Ken Welch warned residents about multiple tower cranes in use throughout the city, which could not be dismantled in time for the storm. The cranes were put into weathervane mode, which makes them safe in up to 100-mph gusts, Fox 13 reported.
"This was a tropical storm that turned into one of the strongest storms in our nation’s history very rapidly, so we’re learning things that we’re going to use to update our processes and procedures going forward, but there’s just no way in this window of time to bring those cranes down," Welch said.
