Boat in a storm at night

A man in Florida has confirmed he is ‘okay’ after riding out Hurricane Milton on his sailing boat, as the Category 5 hurricane causes destruction across the US state of Florida.

Hurricane Milton, the ninth hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday (October 7), making landfall overnight on Wednesday (9 October). The storm exploded in strength and intensity at near record pace, becoming one of the most intense hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin. Climate scientists have confirmed this explosive strengthening was partly fuelled by record to near-record warmth across the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm has already claimed several lives, with over three million Florida homes and businesses without power today. Over 7 million people in 15 counties were issued urgent mandatory evacuation orders this week.

Joseph Malinowski went viral on the social media platform TikTok under the name ‘Lieutenant Dan’ for his refusal to budge in the face of the record-breaking storm. It’s understood that his boat is his home and contains ‘everything he owns’.

An initial video posted by Malinowski gained millions of views after he claimed that the boat would ‘float’, even if flooding rose to the predicted level of 4.5 metres. He claimed that ‘God has his back’ and appeared undeterred by the risks – refusing to go with police who had attempted to move him to a shelter before the storm hit.

Footage taken during the storm shows the boat rocking violently.

Despite Malinowski seemingly getting away with an arguably reckless decision, others have been escaping through any means possible. Sick cruise passengers were airlifted from a cruise vessel off the Florida coast after the ship got caught offshore, waiting for the storm to make landfall. The Sun Princess was forced to turn around before it could dock at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, leaving the ship stranded five miles offshore.

Based on wind speed, Milton became the strongest hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Rita in 2005. Based on pressure, Milton was the fifth most intense hurricane in the Atlantic basin on record. Milton is also the second Category 5 hurricane this season. The first was Beryl in July. There have only been five other years (since 1950) in which there were more than one Category 5 hurricanes in a single season: 1961 (2), 2005 (4), 2007 (2), 2017 (2), and most recently 2019 (2).

The situation presents monumental challenges for not only the Southeast region’s residents and businesses, but for the entire recreational boating industry. 

The storm comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene ripped through the Sunshine State, with numerous fatalities, millions left homeless and severe power cuts. The aftermath included clearing up boats which became untethered and found new homes.

The post Florida man ‘refuses to leave boat’ as Hurricane Milton batters state appeared first on Marine Industry News.