Local man faces Sandy damage

A Masterton man holidaying in New York during superstorm Sandy has described a city in lockdown as trains, buses and planes are cancelled, subways flooded and millions of homes left in darkness.

Solicitor Tony Garstang, who began his holiday last Friday, said it depended where you were in New York as to whether the storm was a "devastating tragedy" or just "a day or two of inconvenience for tourists".

In an email message to his wife Maree, Mr Garstang said his hotel in midtown Manhattan was about 4km from the flood-ravaged lower Manhattan Island.

"We have been getting information from TV news and the internet and all I can see out the hotel window is a calm, cloudy morning with a few spits of rain and sounds of sirens continually heading south," he said.

His hotel was 50m above sea level, on a rise, away from the sea surges and the overflowing East River that burst through to Lower Manhattan, which is virtually at sea level.

However, Mr Garstang said although he was "cocooned high up here", news reports had spoken of the transport lockdowns and electricity blackouts. "Our little neighbourhood supermarket has stalwartly remained open, despite staff shortages.

"I have been scathing about their 120km/h wind gusts and the television hype, so decided this morning to walk south to Lower Manhattan to see what the fuss was about," he said.

"It was a six-hour expedition via a strangely quiet Times Square, Broadway, 7th Ave and Madison Ave."

Mr Garstang said thousands of people were on the streets carrying flimsy cheap umbrellas and were socially lost with no cafes, shops, theatres, museums or other attractions open.

"There were no fast elevator trips to the heights of the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Tower or the Rockefeller Centre." He saw traffic officers directing traffic because lights were out of commission, wrecked fences and water-driven debris piled up to 1.5m, and chunks of timber from smashed wharves.

"It seems that a timber yard upstream must have been inundated.

"Planks of new timber were strewn over roads for several kilometres and in places we climbed over piles of broken beams and joist material and tree branches."

Mr Garstang said people living in the lower reaches would have been "hostage" to Sandy and must have been frightened.

He said JFK airport was due to reopen, with schools doing so a day later and buses and some subway trains maybe later still.

"The subways must have been rushing, underground rivers.

"It may be a few days before the city gets its train system back."