[jmcdiesel]

I dont think the fear is sheltering... Most of those islands have shelter, its not like hurricanes are a rare event for them.

However, its the destruction and risk that it could be WEEKS before help comes if infrastructure is completely destroyed... and an island with limited resources means that the people still on the island will (compared to mainland) very quickly start to realize that they need to eat and acquire things to survive... and survival mode is the worst part of any natural disaster. The damage done by Katrina to New Orleans was horrible, but honestly, the damage done afterwards by the people that lived there (that was done to survive, im not criticizing, morality changes real quick in survival mode) wsa pretty horrible, too. Imagine a small-ish island with not a lot of natural resources and no quick way to get truckloads of supplies en mass...

Not saying thats what's going to happen - but thats the kind of outcome people forget when they volunteer to ride out a natural disaster. The actual event is just the prelude to a pretty bad period of time for the area it hit... and the pain you will feel after the hurricane is likely to be much higher than the hurricane itself.