Liberty Island Reopens - Ellis Island Remains Closed

Debris Left From The Storm Surge On Ellis Island

The article below is posted to honor the hard work of the National Park Service and this year's mission participant Diana Pardue.

Resource:  Yahoo News

By Holly Bailey

For more than 100 years, Ellis Island has been an important symbol of the nation’s immigration system, a place where more than 12 million people passed through between 1892 and 1924 seeking a better life in America. And since 1990, when Ellis Island reopened as a museum, millions more have walked through its doors, seeking to understand its role in creating the nation’s “melting pot” of culture and their own family roots.

But for the past eight months, Ellis Island has been eerily quiet, another victim of the rage of Superstorm Sandy. The Oct. 29 storm flooded the island with what National Park Service officials say was at least an 8-foot wall of water, destroying its electrical system and damaging many of its historic buildings—including the immigration museum.

“We went back through the historical records, and Ellis Island has never seen a storm like this. … We thought the buildings were on high enough ground, but nobody imagined water coming over the walls like it did,” Diana Pardue, head of museum services for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, said. “It was a very damaging storm.”

Neighboring Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, also sustained major damage from Sandy—adding up to a combined $59 million in damage to both islands, according to the NPS. But after months of renovations—including the rebuilding of its electrical system, walkways and boat docks--Liberty Island will reopen Thursday in time for the Independence Day holiday.

Yet Ellis Island will remain dark, closed until at least next year. Park officials, who had put all their focus on getting Liberty Island back open, say they will soon turn their attention to Ellis Island, where they will undertake a massive renovation aimed not only at repairing Sandy damage but protecting the island from future storms.

“The decision was made early on that we didn't just want to put everything back where it was so that if there is another storm like this” the island is better prepared, Pardue said.

While park officials say they are only now beginning to plot the exact details of the rebuilding process at Ellis Island, their early decisions mirror those made by building owners in Lower Manhattan who are being forced to bring their structures, many of which are more than 100 years old, into the modern age.

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