Students caught up in cyclone chaos
The Inlet section of Atlantic City, New Jersey, as Hurricance Sandy made its approach (AP/6abc Action News, Dann Cuellar)
BRITISH nationals, including school children from the Harborough area, have been caught up in one of the worst storms to hit the East Coast of the US for a generation.
Winds of up to 85mph slammed into the coastline late last night (Monday) and hurled a record-breaking 13ft surge of seawater at New York City, causing extensive flooding and leaving at least 250,000 people without power.
There have been reports of 11 deaths, including a man whose house was hit by a tree in the Queens borough of the city and two people killed in the state of New Jersey further down the coast.
A group of 38 Leicestershire students on a school trip to the USA were taking refuge in their hotel for several hours as New York braced itself for the storm.
Among the Leicester High School pupils were young people from the Harborough district who were stocking up on supplies before being ordered to keep off the city’s streets.
The teenagers are on a week-long trip to take in the Presidential elections and are holed up in a hotel in Times Square.
Speaking to the media via internet link Skype, A-Level student Sorcha Whyte (17), from Harborough, said: “We are in the middle of Times Square and it’s pretty chaotic. The supermarkets are crowded with everyone panic buying.
“We have been told to stay in the hotel. We will not be able to go over to Washington as we had hoped.”
Do you know someone from the Harborough district caught up in the storm along the East Coast? Contact us by emailing the Mail newsdesk. Contact us by emailing the Mail newsdesk.
British holidaymaker Tony Lee, who was taking refuge in an apartment building in Brooklyn overnight, described the ferocity of the storm - which was downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone.
He told Sky News: “There is a lot of bright lights and flashing in the sky. We initially thought we had seen an explosion over the Lower East Side, but locals told us it was probably a transformer that had blown up, so we immediately lost any internet connection, lights and power, so that was quite frightening.
“We were surrounded by green flashes of lightning and this howling wind, and everything bending over and flying at the windows and we are on the fourth floor.
He added: “There are things coming off trees and off the roofs, which is frightening.”
Television pictures showed a crane on the top of a high-rise building in Manhattan partially collapsed while the facade of a four-story building in the Chelsea neighbourhood crumbled to the ground.
Footage also showed severe flooding in parts of the city with subways and roads underwater.
Another British national Chris Sell, who has lived in New York for 23 years, told BBC Radio 5Live: “It is very windy and a bunch of trees have fallen down.
“I think the city has done an amazing job of getting us all ready for it. I really think we are all as ready as we can be.
“The building collapse in Manhattan is an anomaly but I think the flooding is the big thing. It feels a bit like it did after 9/11 but we are a tough breed here.”
More than 1.5 million people were left without electricity in New York State after cuts caused by storm, according to officials.
UK resident Tom Latchem, who is also in the US, said one of the windows at the apartment block he was staying in was shattered by the storm and there were leaks in the ceiling.
“It’s just a case of hoping the windows don’t come in really but it’s quite an experience,” he told Sky.
“By and large people are staying in - the police came around earlier because one of the powerlines came down and they cordoned off the road.
“I wonder whether New York and landlords haven’t taken this too seriously or given enough thought to it.
“To leave a crane up in the middle Manhattan in what was going to be one of the biggest hurricanes in New York in 200 years, you wonder whether people were prepared enough for it.”
British tourist Louise Lyons is also in New York City.
She said: “The whole of Lower Manhattan is completely blacked out and it is eerily quiet. There is flooding all they way downtown, there is like five feet of water in Lower Manhattan.
“Everyone has been advised to stay indoors and police are patrolling the streets.”
Ms Lyons said she had booked a flight to come home tomorrow night and is staying with friends in the meantime.
Information from the Press Association was used in this report.
Story by Harborough Mail deputy editor Alex Blackwell. Follow Alex on Twitter.
Do you know someone from the Harborough district caught up in the storm along the East Coast? Contact us by emailing the Mail newsdesk. Contact us by emailing the Mail newsdesk.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Market Harborough
Friday 24 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 4 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 29 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North
