Hurricane Milton hero ‘Lieutenant Dan’ has broken his silence after defying orders to leave his boat last night as he declared: “I’ve had more eventful nights.”
Joseph Malinowski, who lost a leg in a car accident at the age of 16, defiantly ignored evacuation orders in Tampa Bay, Florida, and decided to stay in his 20ft boat throughout the storm. After the hurricane made landfall, Lieutenant Dan, who has become an internet sensation after refusing the police’s offer to get into a shelter, said Milton was “awesome” and even claimed it wasn’t as strong as Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.
Lieutenant Dan admitted he was a bit tired after the storm and said he was looking forward to sleeping – but described his evening in the middle of the storm as “uneventful” and “mellow”. Joe, who lives on his fishing boat, said: “It was pretty good, I mean it wasn’t too bad.”
Online star Joe Malinowski said Hurricane Milton was ‘uneventful’ (
SKY NEWS)
Speaking to Sky News correspondent James Matthews, he said his boat got trapped for a bit and at some point lost his anchor, but was able to ride in the opposite direction to the wind. He added: “Actually this wasn’t as bad as Helene was. Helene was worse than that was.”
Lieutenant Dan added that during Hurricane Milton, his boat suffered some “cosmetic damage” as the wind didn’t blow from the west, as he expected, but from the east. When asked if he was scared at any point during the storm, he declared: “No. I was right here and I wasn’t going anywhere, so I wasn’t concerned. It was alright.”
He then said he was “ready to go back to bed” as admitted he stayed awake all night just to make sure that nothing went wrong and “in case anything happened, I’d be able to fix it.” And he added: “It was uneventful. It was nice. It was mellow.”
He defied evacuation advice and decided to stay in hi boat (
SKY NEWS)
Joe’s nickname is due to the fact that his leg was amputated below the knee. In Forrest Gump, Lieutenant Dan lost both of his legs below the knee during the Vietnam War. The Tampa man was spotted at 11pm last night poking his head out the boat to insist to reporters that he “was fine” after posting an earlier TikTok explaining how he was getting on in the boat.
“They’re saying the storm is still about an hour and a half out, and if that’s the case and I’m feeling double of what it is now, that’s not a problem, not a problem now,” he told his social media followers. He also tried to reassure people his boat was “secure” in the 120mph winds and that it had not been seriously damaged during the storm.
“I’m not taking on any water, I haven’t even spilled my coffee yet,” he told his more than 242k followers. “I’m good, I’ve got everything I need, I’ve got plenty of water, I’ve got plenty of food. I could be in here for two weeks. I’ve got everything I need – coffee, creamer, everything.”
He said the hurricane was ‘awesome’ (
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Despite Lieutenant Dan’s defiant attitude, about 120 homes were destroyed before Milton made many of them mobile homes in communities for older adults. More than 3.3 million homes were left without electricity, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.
St. Petersburg residents also were without household tap water after the city shut down service due to a water main break. Officials in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota and Lee counties urged people to stay home, warning of downed power lines, trees in roads, blocked bridges and flooding.