By Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor
NJ Today
Ellis Island — the gateway to America for millions of immigrants from 1890 to 1924 — today looks like a ghost town. Ferry boats that used to carry an estimated 4 million visitors here annually now just transport contractors and other workers. That’s because this area has been closed to the public since Superstorm Sandy ravaged the island.
“The water came in here like a tsunami and it went out like a tsunami. Pieces of the outside doors here you see were literally blown in. A good 4 feet of water here. Down in main building it was seven feet of water,” said C&S Building Services Chief Engineer Tom Duncan.
WATCH VIDEO:
Photos from the National Park Service, taken shortly after the storm, reveal some of the destruction. Windows and doors were blown out, boats were tossed about, infrastructure crumbled and debris was scattered around the island. Much of it has been removed, but a host of other problems persist from lack of power and communications to damaged piers — just a few of the reasons why Ellis and nearby Liberty Island are still closed to the public.
“Ellis Island is still operating on generator power and that generator power is just supporting the office buildings that you see down here,” said Linda Friar, chief of public affairs for the National Park Service. “Liberty Island, you can see from here, is a little bit higher so I would say it was covered by water about 75 percent. Thank goodness the statue wasn’t damaged. But also over there the power, the heating and air conditioning, communications and all that infrastructure was totally demolished.”
On Ellis Island, the basement of the museum suffered losses, but the exhibits chronicling the journey of millions of immigrants that came through here were not. That’s because 1 million documents and other artifacts were moved to a storage facility.
“Until this building can reopen and we can manage the temperature, those items won’t be brought back,” said Friar. “It’s so heartbreaking. This is what America is was built on.”
Also heartbreaking is the damage comes after years of efforts to restore and stabilize the buildings here. And with both Liberty and Ellis Island still closed, there’s an economic toll. Last year, visitors spent $175 million — money this Sandy-ravaged region could surely use.
In the coming weeks, repairs will be made to the docks and power will hopefully be restored. Fifty-nine million dollars in federal funds have been approved for Liberty and Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty and portions of Ellis Island are scheduled to reopen on July 4, but the museum and much of Ellis Island will likely remain closed through the end of the year.