This piece of news will not surprise anyone who has been following this thread. It's astonishing to me that these people did not evacuate a low-lying island that was directly in the path of the eye of Hurricane Irma ...
----
NEWS 6 Sep, 2017

The island of Barbuda is “literally under water” and “barely habitable” after nearly all of its buildings were destroyed by Hurricane Irma.
Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told a local ABS broadcaster that one baby had died and about 60% of the population of about 1,800 is now homeless after Irma bore down upon the eastern Caribbean.

The islands’ minister of foreign affairs reportedly told the network that more than 90% of buildings were destroyed by the Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.

-------------------

Actually, for anyone who is near the eye of this storm, the wind is essentially a giant tornado. That's a pretty good way of thinking about it.