A climate change denier, who mocked the threat of Hurricane Irma, has had to evacuate his Florida home to get out of its way.
Right-wing radio show host Rush Limbaugh has also claimed that media hype was a means for advertisers to sell bottled water and emergency supplies to communities.
But on Thursday the 66-year-old said that he will not be hosting his show on Friday due to the approaching storm, which has been downgraded to category 4.
He said:
“May as well announce this. I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things, but it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow.
“We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown.”
The irony of his announcement did not go unnoticed.
As Hurricane Irma neared the Caribbean earlier this week, with winds of up to 185 mph, Limbaugh said:
“Here comes a hurricane, local media goes on the air, ‘Big hurricane coming, oh, my God! Make sure you got batteries. Make sure you got water. It could be the worst ever. Have you seen the size of this baby? It’s already a Cat 5. Oh, my God, oh, my God, it’s bigger than the island of Haiti. Oh, my God.’ People run to the stores, they stock up everything, and they hoard. And they end up with vacant stores, nothing there. And it’s a big success. TV stations got eyeballs, the advertising businesses have sold out of business, gotta restock and the cycle repeats.”
Limbaugh, who lives and broadcasts from Palm Beach, repeatedly complained about the stores in his area running out of water, despite the uncertainty of the storm’s path.
Limbaugh also claimed the storm was being used to push an environmental agenda.
“You can accomplish a lot just by creating fear and panic,” he said on his website.
“You don’t need a hurricane to hit anywhere. All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.”
He made similar comments about hurricanes last year, saying it was in the “interest of the left to have destructive hurricanes because then they can blame it on climate change”.
At least 14 people have been killed after Hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, thrashed a string of Caribbean islands as it headed towards the US.
Officials have warned that the storm - expected to reach America by Saturday evening - will “devastate” parts of the country, with areas of Florida expected to lose electricity for days.
More than 100,000 people could need shelter, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has cautioned.