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Johnson Atoll doesn't even have a caretaker these days?

I was mistaken about it being uninhabited. According to today's Stars and Stripes -

Ioke spawned last week well to the south of the Hawaiian islands, developed into a hurricane and lashed Johnston Island last Wednesday, JTWC officials said.
The Associated Press reported that five Coast Guardsmen and seven Air Force contractors on the island took shelter from Ioke’s 105 mph winds in a bunker designed to weather a Category 4 storm.

Maybe not. The Honolulu Star Bulletin's article on Ioke's brush with Johnston Island claims that the folks who took shelter on Johnston Island were from an Air Force research vessel, and that the island is currently uninhabited (well, at least officially - the Air Force owns research vessels?):

Thirteen people aboard an Air Force research vessel took shelter from Hurricane Ioke on Johnston Island yesterday, the Coast Guard reported.

The island, about 800 miles west-southwest of Honolulu, was expected to be under a hurricane warning until sometime this morning.

The National Weather Service classified Hurricane Ioke as a Category 2 storm, with sustained winds of 105 mph, yesterday evening. It was heading northwest at 9 mph.

Five crew and eight passengers took shelter at a bunker on the uninhabited island sometime yesterday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Clayton said. The group was in a boat of 96 feet or smaller and decided to come ashore to a hurricane-proof bunker, rather than try to weather the storm on the boat, he said.

The Coast Guard had no communication with the group yesterday after it entered the bunker, Luke said.

The Coast Guard is sending its 190-foot buoy-tender Kukui and a 110-foot patrol boat to Johnston Island to retrieve the Air Force group in case its boat does not survive the hurricane, Luke said. The boats should arrive late tonight or early tomorrow, he said.

The Coast Guard also plans to fly a plane over Johnston Island today after the hurricane passes to look for survivors and at the condition of the boat.

JOHNSTON ISLAND is a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service refuge that hasn't been staffed for more than a year. It also is the site of radioactive materials that have been buried there by the military, after an extensive cleanup. The military also cleaned up the island after chemical weapons were incinerated there.

--Snip--

Hawaii's Gannette Snoozepaper reported that everyone was safe after the storm, and the folks on the boat were "apparently doing repair work" on the island before the hurricane hit.