It plunged toward the heart of the city — apartments, bars, restaurants, an art gallery, museum and offices. Tens of thousands of pounds of steel sl

A crane collapsed in Hurricane Milton. Authorities aren’t investigating

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2024-10-21 14:30:02

It plunged toward the heart of the city — apartments, bars, restaurants, an art gallery, museum and offices. Tens of thousands of pounds of steel slicing through the blinding rain.

The massive shard had broken off a crane on the highest tower in the city, The Residences at 400 Central, as Hurricane Milton blasted Tampa Bay. The crane crashed into an empty building, home to a defense contractor, a law firm, a juice shop and the Tampa Bay Times.

Only 35 hours before, Mayor Ken Welch had for the first time warned residents in the area that the cranes could topple in high winds. Anyone below could be crushed.

But in Florida, city leaders don’t have the power to mandate how contractors prepare their cranes for a hurricane. No one in the state does.

The collapse has spotlighted gaping holes in the regulation of cranes in a place that’s booming with coastal development and more susceptible to major storms than just about anywhere in the country.