Emergency crews in New Orleans on Friday were preparing to demolish two cranes that are teetering over a partially collapsed hotel project near the French Quarter, with fears that high winds from Tropical Storm Nestor could topple the cranes onto critical infrastructure and historic buildings.

To prepare for the emergency demolition, which is scheduled for Saturday afternoon and will include blow torches and explosives, the authorities widened an evacuation area around the site, where a Hard Rock Hotel under construction partially collapsed last weekend, killing three workers and injuring more than 20 people.

With Tropical Storm Nestor forming in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, city officials said they were racing to safely bring down the unstable cranes and stabilize ruined structures.

“Now it’s crunchtime,” the New Orleans fire chief, Tim McConnell, said during a news conference on Friday morning. “We’re moving as fast as possible,” he said, noting that the demolitions could safely occur within 15 minutes of the preparations being completed.