Matthew Heller, a longtime Floridian, has decided to stay in Tampa as officials warn residents in evacuation zones that they must leave the area.

Heller, a business owner, told Fox News Digital he wasn’t sure which direction the storm was heading and some of his neighbors had already evacuated.

“Some of my neighbors have younger children. For me it’s just me. My house is my livelihood, so I plan to settle down. But I saw other people leaving,” he said.

COASTAL FLORIDIAN warns others to ‘get out’ as Hurricane MILTON approaches: ‘We have no idea what’s coming.’

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issued a dire warning this week to those who don’t leave evacuation sites: “If you choose to stay in one of these evacuation areas, you will die,” she told CNN on Monday.

Heller’s home in Tampa, Florida, suffered over 1.5 meters of water damage from Hurricane Helene a few weeks ago. (Matthew Heller)

“If I feel threatened at any time, I wear a life jacket and hope I can just swim out. I have been moving all of my vehicles to higher, high-dry places for the past few days. Hopefully I can just swim to one of these places and stay there while the water recedes,” Heller said.

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Heller said he found himself in “total chaos” as residents searched for gas.

Tampa resident Matthew Heller told Fox News Digital he is seeing trash everywhere as residents have been directed to pick up the damage caused by Hurricane Helene on the streets. Now the city is preparing for Hurricane Milton. (Matthew Heller)

“I wanted to fill up my tank. I had about half a tank and just wanted to fill it up…it took 10 stops. They all have plastic over the pumps, and one time I found an open gas station… people weren’t at the tank. People were standing in line screaming and honking, and the storm isn’t even here yet. So scary,” he said.

Heller battled Hurricane Helene, which hit the same area a few weeks ago and flooded his entire home to a height of 1.5 meters.

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Florida resident Matthew Heller plans to ride out Hurricane Milton at his home in Tampa. (Matthew Heller)

“The garbage has been lined up on our streets for over 11 days now. There is so much debris from the last storm that I haven’t seen any real effort to clean it up. So I don’t know, (we’re) nice here on our own,” Heller said.

Heller went viral on TikTok for kayaking through his flooded home during Hurricane Helene and taking footage showing the water-damaged home.

“I spent the whole week recovering, removing drywall and then the entire main floor of my house was decimated. It’s all on the side of the road now. The city of Tampa asked us to leave it unpackaged. So I have all this loose construction debris. “My big concern is that debris will clog any type of drainage system and cause more problems or become missiles and/or projectiles and damage other objects and things,” Heller said.

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Heller said his family is concerned for his safety.