A FLORIDA sailor who became a “hero” for refusing to leave his boat during Hurricane Milton has now been arrested.
Joseph Malinowski, dubbed “Lieutenant Dan”, became an internet sensation after he vowed to stay in the tiny vessel amid the horror storm.
Joseph Malinowski, who gained viral attention on TikTok as ‘Lieutenant Dan’ has now been arrested in Florida[/caption]
Tampa police tried to persuade Malinowski who was living on his boat during Hurricane Milton[/caption]
Footage captured the yacht being thrown around by waves[/caption]
Florida was battered by “catastrophic” flooding and 120mph winds as Hurricane Milton ripped through the state.
Locals were urged to evacuate immediately as they were told their homes were coffin.
But Malinowski defied the urgent warnings and insisted he was going to ride out the storm on his boat.
As Milton barrelled across the Gulf of Mexico, some thought the 54-year-old was set for certain death.
Footage captured his yacht being thrown around by waves.
But the rogue resident survived the storm – and spent the entire night inside his boat.
He has now been arrested by the Florida police department over charges of alleged health hazards.
Cops visited Malinowski at his “home” on Thursday and asked him to move his boat out of the Bayshore Linear Park over “health hazards”.
He was also told he didn’t have an adequate record of waste disposal on his boat, or an accessible marine sanitation device.
However, the rogue sailor refused to move out of the area before getting arrested.
While drafting his arrest notice, his occupation was listed as “TikTok Star”.
The one-legged seafarer, who compared himself to Noah with his ark, posted a clip to TikTok during the night saying what he was facing was “not a problem”.
Speaking from his vessel -which is named Sea Shell – Joe told Sky News: “I’m gonna be fine. Plan is to sit down and hunker down.
“This is a boat. It’s meant to be on water.”
Joe – who claimed to have slept through Hurricane Helene – added: “I have no concerns, God’s got me.
“God told me to come out here and get a boat. I came out here and got a boat.
“He’s been telling me in the last two days I’m doing the right thing.
“He’s got my back. I’m in good shape. We’re gonna ride this one out.”
More than two million homes and businesses were left without power as Hurricane Milton sparked 126 tornado warnings in Florida – the most ever in a single day.
Millions of terrified residents fled the state after President Joe Biden warned Milton would be “one of the most destructive hurricanes of the century”.
Authorities warned the force and destruction of Hurricane Milton could be catastrophic for many communities that are in the path of the storm.
The entire roof of the Tropicana Field’s stadium was ripped off as it suffered the wrath of the hurricane.
Shocking footage shows the roof being torn apart by ferocious winds.
The stadium – home to the Tampa Bay Rays – was being used as a base for thousands of emergency workers who set up camp there ahead of the hurricane.
What is a hurricane and how do they form?
A HURRICANE is another name for a tropical cyclone – a powerful storm that forms over warm ocean waters near the equator.
Those arising in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific are called hurricanes, while those in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean are dubbed typhoons or cyclones.
North of the equator they spin anticlockwise because of the rotation of the Earth, however, they turn the opposite way in the southern hemisphere.
Cyclones are like giant weather engines fuelled by water vapor as it evaporates from the sea.
Warm, moist air rises away from the surface, creating a low-pressure system that sucks in air from surrounding areas – which in turn is warmed by the ocean.
As the vapour rises it cools and condenses into swirling bands of cumulonimbus storm clouds.
The system grows and spins faster, sucking in more air and feeding off the energy in seawater that has been warmed by the sun.
At the center, a calm “eye” of the storm is created where cooled air sinks towards the ultra-low pressure zone below, surrounded by spiraling winds of warm air rising.
The faster the wind, the lower the air pressure at the center, and the storm grows stronger and stronger.
Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land as they are no longer fed by evaporation from the warm sea.
But they often move far inland – dumping vast amounts of rain and causing devastating wind damage – before the “fuel” runs out and the storm peters out.
Hurricanes can also cause storm surges when the low air pressure sucks the sea level higher than normal, swamping low-lying coasts.
Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field stadium[/caption]
