Influencer Caroline Calloway drew scrutiny from many online this week after she shared she’s not evacuating her Sarasota, Florida, condominium as Hurricane Milton approaches.
Calloway, 32, was among the first Instagram stars, gaining notoriety for her paragraphs-long captions and whimsical photographs documenting her daily life. But in 2019, the internet turned on her after some accused her of being a scammer and her former friend and ghostwriter, Natalie Beach, wrote an article for The Cut detailing their alleged volatile friendship.
Many online have remained captivated with Calloway’s updates — including her most recent posts from the Sunshine State. One image in particular from her Instagram story — a view of her plant and balcony overlooking a rainy Florida — was viewed 1.4 million times on X after a user posted a screenshot and suggested Calloway might die.
Milton’s maximum sustained winds are 125 mph, which puts it at Category 3, according to the National Hurricane Center. It is expected to make landfall near Sarasota tonight. For days, authorities have urged residents in its path to evacuate.
But Calloway, who has 671,000 followers on Instagram, remains largely unfazed by the widespread concern as Milton barrels toward Florida’s west coast. In a phone interview Wednesday, she said her condo unit is not on the ground floor, despite what the viral poster suggested.
“I’m not scared, but I am nervous, and I think being a little nervous is healthy,” she said.
Calloway said she’s confident her building can sustain the hurricane.
“We have 145 mile per hour wind hurricane-grade windows; the walls are 3 feet of concrete. There are lots of rooms in everyone’s condos that don’t face the sea,” she said. “So, like, it’s not like the only space you can be in is exposed to the ocean.”
She estimated that 30 people have stayed behind in her building — and as its youngest resident, she said, she wants to make herself available to take care of the elderly residents who might struggle during the storm.
“It’s not just like they were my grandma’s best friends — I’ve known these women since I was a baby. I’ve grown up with them,” she said of her relationships with many of her neighbors. “I’ve been coming here since I was a child. So I definitely want to check in with them and just be able to, like, make myself useful.”
Calloway, a fourth-generation Floridian, said she has plenty of time to read a book, make content or go viral on TikTok while she rides out the storm.
While some online worried for her safety, others mocked — or criticized — her decision to stay behind. Some pointed out that in her posts on X announcing her decision to remain in Sarasota, she promoted her second book.
Calloway emphasized that she has never considered herself “a role model” when it comes to what to do or what not to do in a natural disaster.
“I am not going to be trying to, overnight, turn into some sort of social activist or government official or meteorological expert or even just a moral role model, right?” she said. “My content will be what it’s always been, which is entertainment, which is chaos, which is art, which is a first-person account of my life, yes, a digital memoir.”
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