A NEWRY-born business analyst working in New York yesterday described the eerie quiet of the city as it awaits the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.
Speaking to the News Letter at around 12.30pm Eastern Standard Time (EST), or 4.30pm GMT, Grace Smith said many people had already been evacuated as the worst storm to hit the city in more than 20 years roared in from the Atlantic.
“They are literally going to lock the city down,” she said.
“At the minute it’s like a ghost town. I was on Fifth Avenue and there were very, very few shops open, no buses, no subway.
“It’s bizarre, I’ve never seen New York so silent.”
The UCD graduate joined Newry-based financial software and consulting business First Derivatives in 2010 and was first posted to Toronto before moving as an analyst with Credit Agricole in New York just over a year ago.
“I really like it here,” she said.
“They’re a very nice company, very nice to work for and the work is very interesting.”
Yesterday morning, however, the situation was very different.
“We all got to work and I don’t think they anticipated how bad it was going to be and we were all sent home again at around 11.30 because they didn’t want to put any staff in danger getting home. Apparently we’re going to get the brunt this evening and it’s going to get very bad.
“I think most companies here are now planning not to re-open until Wednesday.”
In the meantime, Ms Smith was preparing to sit out the storm, which has understandably caused some upset already at home.
“I’ve been talking to home and they are very worried; it’s definitely got a lot of attention over there.
“I actually think that I’m in one of the safer places to be. I live on 34th and 2nd in Manhattan and my apartment is on the 18th floor. A few of my colleagues have been evacuated because they live in low-lying areas.
“We’ll see what happens. If there is a major impact then the situation could change completely. We just have to wait and see and hope for the best.”
See Business, page 23