St. Petersburg woman who lives across from Tropicana Field recounts Hurricane Milton: ‘It was horrifying’

(ST.PETERSBURG, Fla.) — As Hurricane Milton pummeled the St. Petersburg area, with winds strong enough to shred the roof of Tropicana Field, Kristy Austin said it sounded like a “freight train” was coming through her apartment building.

“It sounded like the ocean was hitting our windows and the water was just pouring through,” Austin, who lives across the street from the stadium, told ABC News on Thursday.

Water was coming in the windows of her eighth-floor apartment, going up to almost her knees, Austin said, while the wind also howled.

“We thought the windows were going to blow and might cut us and kill us,” she said.

Austin said she and her best friend grabbed blankets and emergency bags with their birth certificates and ended up sheltering in the windowless stairwell on the 14th floor of their building all night.

“It still sounded like a freight train coming through the building,” she said. “And the whistling of the storm, it was really scary.”

The St. Petersburg area saw gusts up to 102 miles an hour during Hurricane Milton. More than 18 inches of rain also fell.

The roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, lay in tatters Thursday, most of it completely ripped off during the high winds. The roof was built to withstand 115 mph winds, according to the Tampa Bay Rays media guide.

No one was injured as the stadium roof was torn off during the storm, officials said. The Tampa Bay Rays said Thursday they are working with authorities to secure the building.

“We are devastated by the damage incurred by so many,” the team said.

Ahead of Hurricane Milton’s arrival, Tropicana Field was set up to serve as a base camp for operations and 10,000 first responders. However, in a press conference Thursday morning, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed they were moved out of Tropicana as the forecast changed.

“As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they redeployed them out of Tropicana,” DeSantis said.

Pinellas County had no no running water in the immediate aftermath of Milton after several water main breaks overnight, officials said. By Thursday afternoon, officials said potable water service was back but that pressure may be low.

As St. Petersburg cleans up from the powerful storm, Steven Kauvaris, who lives near Tropicana Field, wanted to see the devastation firsthand.

“That was honestly just pretty impressive,” Kauvaris told ABC News near the stadium Thursday morning. “It’s definitely impressive to see the kind of damage that this storm created.”

Austin said she decided not to evacuate because her building is secure and on the hospital grid, so she didn’t lose electricity. Between the damage to Tropicana Field and the flooding in her apartment, she said she’s never seen anything like Milton.

“It was horrifying,” she said. “We weren’t sure if we were going to make it out alive.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.