A hurricane is a natural heat engine. Notice how it went down in intensity as it sat on that island. It was moving so slowly you could have been in it’s eye and walked with it. Perhaps some survived that way.
Yes, Josh Morgerman among them. His car actually started and he drove some folks to a better shelter during the eye (he was in a concrete block school). At the new shelter there were people who walked or swam there (there was 20 feet or more of surge).