celebrity

'I'm going to die.' The influencer who won’t evacuate during a hurricane.

Caroline Calloway is a name that will invoke one of two reactions.

'Who?' some people might ask. And then there are those who can't get enough of her. I am the latter.

If you haven't studied at the school of Calloway, you might know her as an influencer who was briefly cancelled for charging fans for somewhat scam-adjacent seminars for her followers.

Or more likely, you'll know her as the subject of an article in The Cut where her former friend, Natalie Beach, claimed she was the 'real Caroline Calloway' — suggesting she had ghostwritten Caroline's popular Instagram captions.

Watch this video on the influencer who faked a Bali holiday in IKEA. Post continues after video.


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But this is ancient history in the lore of Caroline Calloway, who has experienced quite the redemption arc in recent years with the release of her ironically titled memoir Scammer in 2023.

It turns out that despite her ex-friend's claims, Caroline Calloway can write and she can write damn well. In the year since Scammer's release, Caroline has teased a bunch of upcoming book releases and kept up her characteristically chaotic online presence.

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This brings us to today. The author has decided she isn't going to move from her home in Sarasota in Florida, an evacuation area that's about to be struck by Hurricane Milton.

"So if you've been following Hurricane Milton, um, I'm going to die," she posted on Instagram.

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"It's supposed to make landfall in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. I'm in Sarasota, I live on the water. It's a zone A, mandatory evacuation."

She then used the announcement to plug her next book on X.

So should her fans be worried? Perhaps!

Hurricane Milton is not any old hurricane.

Milton has already gone from being a Category 1 storm into a Category 5 hurricane and is expected to become one of the most intense hurricanes in recorded history.

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Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor has alerted citizens living in the evacuation zones to leave immediately.

"I can say this without any dramatisation whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die," she stated.

"This is something that I have never seen in my life and anyone who was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area has never seen this before."

An estimated six million people are living in the path of the evacuation zone, including Caroline Calloway.

In an interview with New York Magazine, the content creator tried to explain her decision to stay put.

"I don't think people understand the reasons I have for staying," she said, before sharing the story of a time she chose to evacuate.

"My reasons for staying involve Hurricane Ian, which hit in 2022. I evacuated to my mum's house in North Port…. 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.

"The scariest part was not our dwindling food supply or the insects, which were frankly terrifying when the entire surrounding land turned even swampier than it had been in rural Florida… at night we'd hear gunshots. I still don't know if it was just drunk Floridians exercising their Second Amendment rights on a homemade shooting range in their backyard to pass the time, or if it was something more sinister."

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The author also said she decided to stay as her family's friends had decided not to evacuate too and "someone needs to check on them."

But she did acknowledge it was still a weird decision. "I am not a first responder. I'm fucking Caroline Calloway — I don't even want to have me around an emergency! I'm useless. So I don't think that I am the best person to help them," she said.

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"It is just choosing between so many terrible choices. It's like, okay, so we get evacuated here, but then we left up all of our neighbors. And also we'll be what, stuck in traffic? I can't drive. Remember, I spent my full last 20s either in England or in the West Village. I never got a license, so I would've had to wait until my mum came and got me to evacuate."

In response to a question about whether any officials had gotten in touch, she said "No, but Emma Roberts somehow got my phone number and wished me all the best. So I'd prefer that any day."

When asked about her 'disaster plan', after running through some vague safeguarding, she somehow ended up on the topic of her books.

Image: Instagram/@carolinecalloway.

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"I think my number one 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 is to stay safe, fill up the bathtub, charge chargers, etc. But I do want to try to entertain. I didn't just commit to the bit so hard that I almost died," she said.

"I do know I'm going to make something. I'm going to do what I do best, take some terrible luck and turn it into a great opportunity for content."

In a recent Instagram post, she again promoted her upcoming books, which she captioned, "She died doing what she loved: Posting about her books on Instagram, which nobody believes exist, but are actually very good."

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Some of the comments on the above post expressed suspicions over whether Calloway was actually staying in the evacuation zone.

The most liked comments shared concerns over the welfare of her ragdoll cat, Matisse, who she has confirmed is staying with the 32-year-old.

"I'm very upset about her cat," one commenter noted.

"PLEASE GIVE YOUR CAT TO SOMEONE RESPONSIBLE WHO IS EVACUATING," wrote another.

Despite the criticism, Calloway is making light of the hurricane warnings on X (Twitter).

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At the time of writing this, the divisive author is live-tweeting Hurricane Milton.

If there's anyone who is going to make content out of this potentially devastating natural disaster, it's Caroline Calloway.

Feature image: Instagram/@carolinecalloway.