Family describes being holed up in Manhatten during Hurricane Sandy (From Wiltshire Times)
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Family describes being holed up in Manhatten during Hurricane Sandy
4:27pm Tuesday 30th October 2012 in Latest News
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.”
Comments(11)
Mrs Donnyfly
says...
8:00am Wed 31 Oct 12
0/10 for the reporter's geographical location spelling.
blindingly obvious
says...
9:09pm Wed 31 Oct 12
redrum
says...
6:08am Thu 1 Nov 12
Travel agents have no control over weather and also if it had been me and there were warnings about the storm going my way i would of been out of there while there were flights still leaving the country.
blindingly obvious
says...
6:29am Thu 1 Nov 12
redrum wrote:Humour,Irony
Why do you think their holiday ruined by booking through this certain agent?
Travel agents have no control over weather and also if it had been me and there were warnings about the storm going my way i would of been out of there while there were flights still leaving the country.
weasels ripped my flesh
says...
8:03am Thu 1 Nov 12
Not exactly the attitude that built an empire, is it Red?
eddie_the_ead
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7:05pm Thu 1 Nov 12
old 'arry
says...
5:45am Sat 3 Nov 12
smokingbeagle
says...
6:30pm Sun 4 Nov 12
old 'arry wrote:They aren't counterfeit Rolexes; they are special edition Rolex watches encrusted with blood diamonds mined by ex child soldiers who were bricked into the mine after extraction in order to increase the cachet factor. The straps are a panda/plebeian skin composite, finished with the tears of lower-class hypothermic pensioners, cried out as they withered away in cold council bungalows.
I was under the impession that this newspaper is aimed at bringing NEWS, not "look at us, aren't we lucky to go to the USA" stories. And free advertising for Howard Travel. Why not add "wearing our Gucci shoes and Levi jeans, we parked our Ferrari at the airport and checkd the time on our Rolex conterfeit watches"?
old 'arry
says...
2:35pm Mon 5 Nov 12
smokingbeagle wrote:Oh! Thanks
old 'arry wrote:They aren't counterfeit Rolexes; they are special edition Rolex watches encrusted with blood diamonds mined by ex child soldiers who were bricked into the mine after extraction in order to increase the cachet factor. The straps are a panda/plebeian skin composite, finished with the tears of lower-class hypothermic pensioners, cried out as they withered away in cold council bungalows.
I was under the impession that this newspaper is aimed at bringing NEWS, not "look at us, aren't we lucky to go to the USA" stories. And free advertising for Howard Travel. Why not add "wearing our Gucci shoes and Levi jeans, we parked our Ferrari at the airport and checkd the time on our Rolex conterfeit watches"?
norville
says...
1:27pm Tue 6 Nov 12
In fact I am so angry I am going to have a new central heating system installed which I will buy from those nice men at Commercial & Domestic Plumbing Supplies of Westbury.
redrum says...
6:54am Wed 31 Oct 12