The number of British nationals stranded on the east coast of America by superstorm Sandy should become clearer, according to a senior UK diplomat.

Danny Lopez, the British consul-general to New York, said that despite the devastating weather phenomenon leaving a large area of New York devastated, consular staff in the US had only been contacted by 14 UK nationals over the past two days.

He told ITV's Daybreak: "It has been a few hours now since Sandy has left but it has become very clear and very apparent what the path of destruction has been, not just in Manhattan but across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

"It is going to be a long process now towards recovery."

Speaking from Lower Manhattan, Mr Lopez said he had never seen anything like the destruction left by the storm.

"What we are hearing from authorities right now is that it will probably take around three or four days for power to come back here to this area," he added.

Mr Lopez said he did not have any figures on how many Britons were stranded in New York, but had heard that JFK and Newark airports would be opening on Wednesday with a limited number of flights.

"This is the day where we will be hearing far more, I am sure," he added. "Over the last 48 hours we have actually only had 14 calls from Brits wanting more information.

"The advice I am giving is that they contact their airlines before they travel to the airport and I think that today it will become very clear as to how many stranded passengers we have."

The Press Association, photo by laurenfarmer