Amidst swirling disaster in the South, people online are broadcasting Hurricane Milton from the comfort of their homes.
Florida-based influencers like Caroline Calloway, Jacqueline Goldrich and Morgan Roos have gone viral for ignoring local Florida hurricane evacuation ordinances, choosing to hunker down in their homes. As Hurricane Milton rips through the state destroying property and spawning tornados, they've been giving play-by-play updates about the conditions for the sake of content, despite Tampa Mayor Jane Castor telling residents that Hurricane Helene was a wakeup call and that Hurricane Milton, "is literally catastrophic."
"I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die," Castor's warning emphasized.
However dire the circumstances, influencers like Calloway seem to be ignoring this plea from city and state officials, including a wealthy Tampa mom who defied orders and took to TikTok to show off a "Milton-proof" concrete mansion her husband built to withstand any hurricane.
So why are influencers and online personalities risking their lives to film their hurricane experiences? Salon goes through the controversial internet moments during Hurricane Milton.
Caroline Calloway
The internet's favorite scammer writer and online personality is always shrouded in controversy. This time the author made waves for her decision to document online that she was staying in place at her condo in Sarasota. Calloway's decision angered and entertained people, which seems to have been her inadvertent intention.
One person online said, "Caroline Calloway refusing to leave a mandatory evacuation zone (right on the water, right where landfall is expected) and dying in a hurricane would be the perfect ending to her narrative tbh."
Another person said, "Reading the Caroline Calloway article and thinking a lot about how the greatest entertainment you can give to America is your death. Truly dystopian."
But in a sea of press interviews, Calloway told New York Magazine, "I don’t think people understand the reasons I have for staying, and I’d love to clear that up with you, starting with this viral tweet that’s going around. I never said I live on the ground floor. I live on the water, but I’m three stories up. Even with a 20-foot storm surge, I will not be seeing any of that.
She continued that her reason for staying stemmed from a traumatic experience with Hurricane Ian. Calloway explained, "I evacuated to my mom’s house in North Port. She lives very deep inland, but it’s very flat and I’m higher up, being three stories in the air than I was at her house. It was three days, no water, no electricity, no AC, which is a huge f***ing problem in Florida in late summer, even early fall. We were evacuated by boat by the U.S. military. Her whole neighborhood flooded. They drove one of those Lana Del Rey–husband fan boats down what was formerly known as her street."
When asked about her disaster plan, Calloway said her apartment had hurricane-grade windows that will be taped up. Also, her condo building is putting up a flood storm surge gate. She also said it would be ironic if she did die but "this hurricane’s not going to kill me."
She continued, "The greatest service I, Caroline Calloway, could provide in these times of high anxiety and high stress is entertainment."
"I think my No. 1 purpose in this world is to make books. However, I do think a close second is performance art online and to entertain others. So my plan for the hurricane is obviously, on a boots-on-the-ground level, to stay safe, fill up the bathtub, charge chargers, etc," Calloway said. "But I do want to try to entertain. I didn’t just commit to the bit so hard that I almost died. This was an educated decision made by an adult for a variety of reasons."
Concrete mansion mom
Another online figure defying evacuation orders is a wealthy Florida mom named Kricketfelt on TikTok who has been flashing her concrete mansion that her builder husband constructed to protect from hurricanes.
Before Milton hit Tampa, the mom filmed her house in a now-viral video saying, “This will really piss you off. That’s my house. That’s why I am not leaving. My husband built this house. My husband built this house commercial. It’s residential but it was built commercial grade. It’s solid concrete. I don’t give a f**k about all the people…'oh, you’re so rich, oh my God’….whatever, f**k you. My husband’s a builder."
However, the house which is surrounded by water did not go untouched from Milton's path of destruction. The mother of three, who was keeping her audience on TikTok updated, said, “I know it's getting worse but we chose to stay. Hoping we avoid a surge!”
In one of her most recent posts, she said: “Power’s out.”
Had to see this for myself. Well! https://t.co/YgveParWAj pic.twitter.com/RX53lQw83d
— Ashley Reese (@offbeatorbit) October 9, 2024
Jacqueline Goldrich
Goldrich is a beauty and lifestyle influencer who has 59,000 followers on TikTok. But in the height of preparing for Milton, the influencer has gained millions of eyes on her as she shared that she was not evacuating her home.
During a hurricane update video, she told her followers that she was "stressed as f**k," explaining, "I go through moments of like, freaking out, moments of calm, like, I'm fine."
"My dad actually just called me and he was like, 'You're OK. Like, you literally are in the best position. You have the best house. You have a generator that's the most bada** generator. You have two floors.' So he actually is making me feel way better," she said.
"I started looking at flights out of here, and . . . it was almost two grand for one seat," she said, explaining that she couldn't leave even if she wanted to. "And it was like to Chicago, two stops. And then traffic—if I wanted to go to the other coast, it's at least taking 10 hours. So I'm staying."
On Thursday, Goldrich posed an update captioned, "We made it."
Morgan Roos
Another TikToker with 1.5 million followers also stuck out Hurricane Milton in her riverfront condo in Tampa. Roos' reasons for not evacuating were explained by her saying, "I live on the 11th floor of a high-rise building. I'm in the heart of downtown. You know, they say run from water, hide from the wind. Water ain't coming up 200 feet. So I decided to stay."
The internet personality shared, "Since I am staying, I thought I would give you guys a boots-on-the-ground live update of what's happening."
Since Wednesday, Roos has been posting detailed updates almost every hour about Milton's conditions. However, on Thursday at midnight, Roos said, "My windows failed. So they are creaking and making these very weird sounds and I'm taking on water. I'm on the 11th floor and there's a bunch of water coming in. That door is supposed to be completely sealed. I'm really afraid the windows are going to blow."
The video showed the influencer's apartment covered in towels from the leaking windows. Roos described that she hadn't lost electricity yet and she was going to sleep in the hallway on a blowup mattress.
She updated with another video on Thursday morning telling her millions of viewers that she is "safe" and "made it through the night." She explained that after she posted her videos last night it got "dicey" as water came through lightbulbs in the hallway where she was sleeping.
