Tampa’s viral ‘Lieutenant Dan’ still refusing to leave his boat ahead of Hurricane Milton

One-legged Florida man Joseph Malinowski has gone viral for his refusal to evacuate before Hurricane Milton.

Malinowski, who’s been nicknamed “Lieutenant Dan” — in a nod to Gary Sinise’s seafaring character in “Forrest Gump” — has said he plans on remaining on his boat, likening himself to Noah and his ark.

“The safest place to be in a flood is on a boat. We learned that with Noah. Everyone that stayed on land drowned,” Malinowski told reporters after Tampa police persistently begged him to leave.

Malinowski claims he is following the instructions his father used to give him about surviving a hurricane: “If the tide goes up, I go up. As long as the water stays out of the boat, I’ll be fine.”

The mariner said he has faith that he will survive, and if he doesn’t, that’s God’s will.

“I’m not suicidal, but I’m putting it in God’s hands and taking it out of mine and man’s,” he told NewsNation reporter Brian Entin, peeking out from the cover of his boat.

Despite the Tampa mayor claiming that Malinowski had been evacuated to a hospital, Entin subsequently reported the man was still on his boat.