The spring training home of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles is now housing emergency response providers following Hurricane Ian's landfall in Southwest Florida.
Ed Smith Stadium in northern Sarasota is the Orioles' blocks-long complex featuring a 8,000-seat baseball field for spring training games, several other practice fields, and grass-covered parking lots.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency brought in the white mobile homes in recent days.
Sarasota is about 50 miles north of where the eye of Ian made landfall at Cayo Costa. Peak gusts in Sarasota Bay reached 83 mph at a maritime marker less than two miles from the stadium.
Big piles of mostly tree limbs and other dead vegetation line both sides of the streets in most Northern Sarasota County neighborhoods on Saturday, as they are still awaiting pickup.
Sarasota County schools resume classes Monday. Administrators have already sent several automated messages to parents warning that debris still in the streets from Hurricane Ian, as well as pre-existing staffing shortages and a staff absentee problem, may cause buses to arrive to school late. Parents are being urged to drive their children to school if possible.
