Original version

BBC World Service Online

From Our Own Correspondent

News

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.

From Our Own Correspondent: USA and France

A sign asks for volunteers in the clean-up effort in the Rockaway

23/11/2012

USA and France

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, USA and France

It's a slow road to recovery in one suburb of New York after superstorm Sandy.

It's a slow road to recovery in one suburb of New York after superstorm Sandy; while Catalans in France cherish their heritage.

On the east coast of America many people are still trying to climb out of that abyss of damp destruction caused by superstorm Sandy. Stephanie Hegarty got a frontline-sense of the scale of the task, when she volunteered to help people in a low-lying part of New York City

Meanwhile, people will vote in snap elections on Sunday in the Spanish region of Catalonia. If pro-independence parties win, they've promised to hold a referendum on full-blown nationhood- to the fury of the central government in Madrid. Could this have consequences for the Catalans who have lived north of the Spanish border in France for more than three centuries? Petroc Trelawney has been getting a sense of the feeling in French Catalonia.

(Image: A sign reads 'Volunteers needed please', Credit: Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

From Our Own Correspondent

USA and France

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service