Family describes being holed up in Manhatten during Hurricane Sandy (From Wiltshire Times)

Family describes being holed up in Manhatten during Hurricane Sandy

4:27pm Tuesday 30th October 2012 in Wiltshire

A Batheaston family has found itself holed up in New York as Hurricane Sandy wreaks devastation along the east coast of the United States.

The Butt family of father Arif, mother Louise and children Francesca, 18, and Alex, 16 had been in the city to celebrate Francesca’s 18th birthday on a holiday booked through Howard Travel in Trowbridge.

However the ‘superstorm’ which hit America’s east coast on Monday, forced the family to hole up in their Manhatten apartment to sit it out and has left them not knowing when or how they will be getting home.

Dr Butt, a publisher who lives in Batheaston, said: “We’ve been here since Thursday and it’s just been really unfortunate, the hurricane has come along out of nowhere.

“We’d been here a couple of days and forecasts kept popping up about it.

“We had tickets to Broadway shows, to the opera, a dinner cruise and they’ve just been cancelled one after another. I can’t believe our lack of luck, we didn’t expect this at all. We’re fine, but I feel sorry for my daughter.

“I was out here for 9/11 and it’s reminiscent of that, the whole place is shut down.”

The family is now staying in its mid-Manhatten apartment and sitting the storm out, watching the news and waiting to see what happens. So far their building has maintained power, and still has an internet and telephone connection.

Dr Butt added: “It’s torrential rain outside. We’ve got nothing to do, we’re stuck in the apartment here waiting for the news as it unfolds.

“We were meant to fly back Thursday evening but we don’t know at all what’s going to happen, we’ll see how it develops really.

“Thank God there are a few restaurants staying open. We did get a few provisions in anticipation but in the shops it was a bit like a Hitchcock film, there was a sort of panic.”

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