University of Tampa senior Terrence Concannon was walking his usual route from school in mid-September when he encountered something out of the ordinary: a man in a sailboat, caught in the wind and being dragged out to sea.
“Not a single person would help me,” Concannon recalled the man explaining after the rescue. “They all think I’m crazy or something.”
But Concannon told NBC News that he did help, dragging a rope and pulling 54-year-old Tampa, Florida, resident Joseph Malinowski safely back to the dock — where he vowed to stay, rain or shine.
The encounter was the beginning of what would become a viral saga and national news story, with Concannon documenting Malinowski’s determination to stay on his boat through Hurricane Helene, and now Hurricane Milton, for millions of TikTok viewers.
As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Tampa, where it’s forecast to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday, social media followers and local officials have expressed concern for Malinowski, who has refused to leave his sailboat and get to safety as of Wednesday afternoon.
Forecasters have warned of a potential life-threatening 15-foot storm surge, and local officials have warned people in evacuation areas to leave or face the reality of potentially being killed by the hurricane.
Malinowski, now known on TikTok as “Lieutenant Dan,” recently moved to Florida and lives on his 20-foot sailboat at the Tampa Bay Harbor. He said he has been homeless for the past 10 years — living on the streets, on his scooter and now on his sailboat.
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Malinowski said that at 16 years old he had his leg amputated after he was hit by a car. After their encounter, Concannon compared Malinowski with Forrest Gump’s Lieutenant Dan, a veteran amputee whose shrimp boat was the only vessel to miraculously make it out of “Hurricane Carmen.”
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Malinowski accepted the nickname, telling NBC News he views it as the “character [he plays] on TikTok.”
Concannon first posted a TikTok video featuring Malinowski captioned “Lieutenant Dan vs Hurricane Helene” on Sept. 25. It’s been viewed 1.2 million times. As viewers flocked to his account, they became increasingly concerned with — and enthralled by — Malinowski’s story.
“Every single video I posted, I was getting thousands of comments being like, ‘Where’s Dan? Check on Dan,’” Concannon told NBC News in an interview Wednesday morning.
As Helene progressed, Concannon continued regularly checking in on Malinowski, who seemed largely unfazed by the storm. Though Helene ripped through some parts of Florida, Malinowski said he “slept through it.”
“Other than a couple of scuff marks on the side, my boat’s in better shape now than it was before, because it got washed,” Malinowski said in a post-Helene TikTok update. Malinowski has his own TikTok account which now has over 211,000 followers.
Concannon kept posting videos featuring Malinowski, publishing over 24 updates in the last several weeks. He also launched a GoFundMe page for Malinowski that has raised over $22,000 and counting. For “Lieutenant Dan,” the gesture did more than change his financial situation.
“I gave up on this world years ago because I’ve been on my own,” Malinowski said in a post-Helene update via TikTok. “But Terrence here posted this video and it started getting likes and people started realizing maybe he’s not just crazy, maybe he really does need help.”
“Thank you to everybody that donated,” he added in an interview. “I want to get a bigger boat, something 35-foot, which is well in my price range, and make a home out of it."
But many — including Concannon — worry “Lieutenant Dan” may not survive Hurricane Milton, forecast as the worst hurricane to hit Tampa in over 100 years.
Concannon told NBC he tried to convince Malinowski to evacuate. “And he, of course, just insisted on staying on the boat.”
“God put on my heart to come here. I came here. I’m not going to run with a little weather. God didn’t send me here to die,” Malinowski told NBC News.
Concannon, with the help of Malinowski’s growing fanbase, was able to secure a hotel room, and TikTok commenters even offered to help keep his sailboat safe. But “Lieutenant Dan” couldn’t be swayed.
“I’m not going to go anywhere,” he told NBC. “I’m in a safe position right now … I’m not at risk of sinking. I’m not at risk of getting hurt. It’s cosmetic damage. I can accept that.”
According to the Tampa Police Department, several attempts had been made to assist Malinowski and other “vulnerable populations” in mandatory evacuation zones.
“Our entire department was brought to assist with efforts to include door-to-door notifications, used emergency alerts and audio messages to share information and connect our community with resources such as shelters,” the department said in a statement to NBC News.
“The only reason they care at all about evacuation is because dead people are a bad election point,” Malinowski said in response to the official calls to evacuate. “And since I’ve blown up the way I have, they’re trying to get me to some place where they know I’ll be here tomorrow. Right now, I’m out of their control, and I like it that way.”
In an earlier statement to NBC News, the Tampa Police Department said Malinowski had plans to evacuate. Later in the day, Mayor Jane Castor said in a news conference that the Tampa Bay Police Department had successfully saved Malinowski.
“He has been rescued, and he is now in a shelter as well,” she said. “If we can get Lieutenant Dan to go to a shelter, we can get anybody to do that.”
Malinowski, however, said that wasn't correct.
He said officers tried to get him off of the boat on several occasions, but were unsuccessful. He explained that, following the mayor’s statement, a city police chief came to the harbor and offered to have the city marine unit keep his boat safe should he go to a shelter. Malinowski said he refused to go.
“I’m still on my boat. I’m still afloat, and the rain’s coming down kind of hard, but that’s about it,” he told NBC News in a call from his boat several hours after the mayor's news conference. “I don’t know, I don’t understand why everybody’s concerned. I’ve been doing this for years, and nobody was ever concerned the previous times.”
Malinowski said that if his boat starts to break, he’ll leave for different shelter.
“Don’t get me wrong, if I start bouncing around and I start hearing things crack and break, I’m getting the h--- out of here,” he said.
“But if it’s just wind and some heavy rain, I can deal with that.”
Matt Lavietes reported from Tampa and Sophia Pargas from New York City.
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