That’s almost a quarter of the permanent population. They’re seafaring people, Ocracoke Village has a large fishing fleet. They’ll put their vehicles up on ramps or even drive them into their raised houses through large French doors put there for precisely that reason, then ride it out as they’ve done in the past. Ocracoke is above Cape Lookout, it’s the first inhabited island in the OBX chain. They’ll in all likelihood be OK, and if they aren’t it was their choice to make.
I assure you, I believe that competent adults my make their own decisions about protecting and staying on their property as long as they take consequences without throwing the burden, risk and cost of solving the consequences on the public.
We must be aware that when doing so we create a climate where others, less competent, less prepared or less qualified, follow our example. We saw terrible results from this in Katrina. They thought of themselves as qualified low-land people as well.
If 20 people had elected to stay, I would not have even noted a weather person’s comments. 200 from such a small island seems like capricious behavior to me. That is just my personal opinion. Others will have opinions of their own.