Hurricane Matthew: Vanilla Ice prompts panic for going silent after vowing to 'ride out' Florida storm

90s star appears to have ignored warnings to evacuate the area

Vanilla Ice (Getty)

Vanilla Ice prompted panic among fans concerned for his well-being after the rapper live-tweeted Hurricane Matthew from Palm Beach despite evacuation warnings in the area - before suddenly going quiet.

The storm was expected to hit the Florida region on Thursday evening as it travelled up the coast. On Thursday, the governor of the state Rick Scott issued a strongly-worded warning, saying: “If you are in an evacuation area, get out. Don’t take a chance. Time is running out.

“There are no excuses, you need to leave. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate. If you’re reluctant to evacuate, just think of all the people this storm has already killed. You and your family could be among these numbers if you don’t take this seriously."

Nineties rapper Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, vowed to stay at his home in Palm Beach even though the hurricane was "coming right at" him. Parts of Palm Bach fell under evacuation zones and in a series of tweets, the 49-year-old suggested he was close by, claiming there was already “flooding and debris flying everywhere”.

The account for the Florida Democrats was then forced to remind residents to listen to officials, not Vanilla Ice.

When the "Ice Ice Baby" rapper failed to tweet for another eight hours, several fans started to question if he was ok.

However, on Friday morning he provided an update of the situation in Palm Springs, reassuring concerned fans.

President Obama declared a state of emergency in Florida on Thursday and around one and a half million people are already thought to have evacuated the state and headed inland. It is believed to be the strongest storm to hit the US since 2004.

Early reports on Friday morning suggested southern areas of the Sunshine State, including West Palm Beach, had narrowly escaped the worst of the Hurricane as it had not yet made landfall and travelled north.

Hurricane Matthew has already caused devastation on the Caribbean islands of the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti where hundreds of inhabitants are thought to have been killed and tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed.

After the hurricane hits the Sunshine State, it is expected to travel up to parts of Georgia and the Carolina states over the weekend.