Although Sandy may turn out to be one of the costliest hurricanes in New York’s history, Bajans in the city are counting their lucky stars.
A telephone survey showed that Bajan and other Caribbean immigrants are emerging from the hurricane with slightly damaged properties, homes without electricity and flooded communities but no reported fatalities or serious injuries.
The storm which lashed the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metropolitan area with heavy rains and 90 mile an hour winds for several hours on Monday night, killed ten people in New York City and caused more than US$30 billion in damage.
“I have been living in the city for decades and I have never experienced anything like this,” said Mitchell Franklin, a former Barbados police officer who resides in Brooklyn.
“We were lucky in that only a few shingles were lost from our roof. There wasn’t any extensive damage.”