Influencer Caroline Calloway Says She Will Not Evacuate Florida Home Ahead of Hurricane Milton

Caroline Calloway is staying put.

As cities across Florida brace for the wrath of Hurricane Milton, which is set to make landfall Oct. 9, the influencer shared that she's not leaving her Sarasota home despite living in a mandatory evacuation area. 

"I'm going to die," Caroline said in her Oct. 8 Instagram Stories. "Listen, I didn't evacuate. I can't drive, first of all. Second of all, the airport is closed. Third of all, the last time I evacuated for a hurricane, I went to my mom's house in Northport. Her whole street flooded, and we were evacuated after three days without power, food or running water by the U.S. military." 

"It was very traumatic," she continued. "I don't want to evacuate to my mom's house because the last time I did that, it was the worst time ever."

The Scammer author—who's made headlines over the years for her controversial behavior—noted that she lives in zone A, which would be the most vulnerable during the storm and the first to be evacuated.

Alongside a photo of her apartment's glass sliding door that shows a body of water in the distance, she wrote on her Instagram Stories, "A little concerned I live right on the beach not gonna lie."

That hasn't deterred Caroline from staying at home. In fact, she doubled down on her decision. "I have champagne and four generations of Floridians in my veins," the 32-year-old wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Oct. 9. "It'll be fine."

But her choice has garnered backlash online, with social media users voicing their concerns about her cat Matisse. One user urged her on X, "Girl, please get your cat out at least." Another emphasized, "A Category 4 hurricane is not just some beachy storm that you can ride out with a bottle of rosé!"

Hurricane Milton, which is currently a Category 4, has been growing in size as it makes its way toward Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. 

"This is a very serious situation and residents in Florida should closely follow orders from their local emergency management officials," the NHC shared in an Oct. 9 announcement. "The time to evacuate, if told to do so by local officials, is quickly coming to a close."

Meanwhile, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor took a more blunt approach with her warnings.

"I can say without any dramatization whatsoever," she said on CNN Oct. 7. "If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die."

And she still stands by those statements.

"The point of being blunt was to get everyone's attention," the mayor explained on Today Oct. 8. "This isn't a drill. This is the biggest storm that we have certainly seen here in the Tampa Bay area in over a century."

"People, they don't have to go to another state—just go up to higher ground," she continued. "It is the water that we have got to run from. And that is what is going to be most impactful."

(E! News and Today are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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