'Lieutenant Dan' breaks silence with hilarious five-word response after refusing to leave his boat during Hurricane Milton

Joseph Malinowski, nicknamed Lieutenant Dan, detailed his night dealing with Hurricane Milton and insisted it was rather uneventful.

Malinowski, who quickly became a star on social media, refused to leave his fishing boat, where he lives, despite the warnings for Hurricane Milton.

Feared to be among the strongest storms in the North Atlantic, the devastating weather event made landfall in Sarasota County last night, with 120 mph winds.

US officials had called for residents to evacuate or stay inside if they couldn't. Dan, naturally, was doing neither of these things.

Speaking to a Sky News reporter, he said: “Five years ago, God put on my heart Tampa Bay and get a boat and that is what I am doing.

“I am here for God.

Joseph Malinowski said he was staying put for God (Sky News)

“He told me to be here so I am here.”

The reporter questioned whether he was anxious, as people have been told to evacuate the area for their own safety.

“I am in a boat, and there is water coming in, I am going to go up with the water and when the water goes out I am going to go down.

“As long as I keep the water out of the inside of my boat, I’ll be fine.”

Amazingly, Lieutenant Dan ended up being fine during the storm and hilariously said he'd 'had more eventful nights'.

He did note that he lost his anchor during the storm, but said ‘actually this wasn’t as bad as Helene was. Helene was worse than that was’.

Before Milton hit, Malinowski confirmed that he had stayed in his boat during Storm Helene and was perfectly fine.

Joseph Malinowski joked he had more eventful nights before (Sky News)

He explained: “I did the same thing I am doing right now. The wind came out of the west right here and pushed me to the east, so I was over the water, and I just watched it go up.

“I went to sleep at 12:30, I woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning.

“I’m worried about [my boat] getting scratched up, that's it, that is the worst that is going to happen.”

Speaking after Hurricane Milton, he said he wasn’t scared at any point during the storm, but said his boat did suffer some cosmetic damage, as the wind didn’t blow from the west as he anticipated, but from the east.

He did stay awake all night just to make sure if anything went wrong, he could quickly fix it, but ultimately concluded it ‘it was uneventful. It was nice. It was mellow'.