The man nicknamed ‘Lieutenant Dan’ has been seen for the first time since Hurrican Milton passed over.
Joseph Malinowski had refused to leave his boat in Tampa Bay as the storm battered Florida. The devastating weather has resulted in deaths in the Sunshine State, with more than three million people left without power as evacuation plans were put in place.
Milton swelled to a life-threatening Category 5 hurricane before making landfall south of Tampa as a Category 3 storm with whopping 120mph winds.
But despite all this chaos and fear, the one-legged sailor ignored the advice to shelter inside and refused to budge from his boat.
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The stubborn sailer wasn’t budging. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Going viral on TikTok, Malinowski claimed ‘God told [him] to come out here and get a boat’ as he reckoned he was in the safest place possible.
However, as the storm pounded Florida last night (9 October), his new-found fans online were worried for the man’s life as they awaited updates to see if he survived the storm.
NewsNation correspondent Brian Entin took matters into his own hands as he wandered down to the bay to call out for Malinowski.
Sharing a video to X captioned ‘Lieutenant Dan is okay!’, Entin showed that the sailboat had been tied to a dock where much of the water had been dragged away by the storm.
Entin called out for him a few times before the top opened up and the stubborn sailor popped his head out.
“I’m fine,” Malinowski said pretty casually. But looking around at the low water he added: “Right now I’m doing fine. I’m stuck here, I can’t go anywhere.”
Another user shared a TikTok of the ‘weather warrior’ at 4:39am this morning, proving he is still alive following the storm.
Happy to see he’s survived, users said they’d been checking their phone ‘every hour for a Lieutenant Dan update’.
Others joked the reporter ‘woke him up’ as he was ‘having the best sleep of his life’.
Florida was battered by the storm. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Police had attempted to ‘save’ Malinowski ahead of the hurricane making landfall, but the bloke refused to follow official advice and wasn’t leaving his boat for anything.
Ahead of the storm hitting, Cathie Perkins, emergency management director in Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay, had said: “This is it, folks. Those of you who were punched during Hurricane Helene, this is going to be a knockout. You need to get out, and you need to get out now.”
