Hurricane Irma is expected to pass over southern Florida in the coming days. When it does, Irma will become the strongest storm to navigate the region since the Miami Marlins opened their new ballpark, back in 2012.
The Marlins have a plan for keeping the stadium intact, however -- and it includes keeping the retractable roof partially open. Here's what the Sun Sentinel reported on Wednesday:
That roof, however, will be ajar in several spots -- a 16-foot gap on the east side, a 10-foot gap in the center and a 10-foot gap on the west side.
"It allows the air and the pressure to come inside the ballpark and eventually leave the ballpark," Delorme said. "It avoids putting a lot of uplift on the roof. It was designed that way so we wouldn't get any major damage to our roof."
Tim Healey goes into greater detail about the Marlins' plan -- bubble-wrapping the bobblehead museum, for instance -- but notes that the team began tracking the storm last Thursday. Though the Marlins don't plan to open the stadium up as a shelter, Healey does quote Claude Delorme, the team's executive vice president of operations and events, who says they would if Miami-Dade County asks.
Irma, currently a Category 5 storm, is reportedly the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It's expected to weaken before arriving on Florida's coast sometime over the weekend.
