Both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island will remain closed to tourists indefinitely, a spokesman for the National Park Service confirmed.
Superstorm Sandy hit the city just one day after the interior of the Statue of Liberty was reopened, after a yearlong, $30 million refurbishment.
According to the official, there is no estimate on when the Statue of Liberty’s torch, which went dark during Hurricane Sandy, will again shine in New York’s harbor.
The New York Times reports that the dock at Liberty Island, where usually thousands of tourists disembark on a daily basis, may need to be rebuilt.
Statue Cruises, the company which operates a ferry service to the islands, confirmed they have stopped selling tickets and have no time scale for when service will resume.
At this time of year, normally, ferries transport around 7,500 passengers to the islands each day.
On Ellis Island, the museum, curatorial, and archival collections are fully intact, with staff offices suffering little or no flooding.
Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the “incident management team” for the Park Service told the Times while the Empire State’s pedestal and base had received “little or no damage.”
The basement of the building was flooded during the storm, cutting off power on Liberty Island.
He added that the security screening apparatus which are housed in a large tent on the the Battery Park waterfront was also “significantly damaged”.
Some tourists expressed their disappointment about the news when they commented on the Statue of Liberty’s Facebook page.
“Visiting the Statue of Liberty was something I had hoped to do this weekend.” Joe Sullivan wrote.
“Sandy was a destructive storm... the damage to Liberty Island is bad, but the damage to places like Staten Island is heartbreaking... parts of NYC look like Germany after WWII (SIC).”
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island - 2 minute HD tour:
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Seanmor | Mar 24, 2013, 12:12 PM EDT
Much has been written about Miss Liberty, including a short story by O Henry (William Porter) titled "The Lady Higher Up". In this story the Statue of Liberty says this: "I was ...presented to the American people on behalf of the French government for the purpose of welcomin' Irish immigrants into the Dutch city of New York". O Henry potrays the Irish in rather disparaging fashion and the term "higher up" abviously means that the famous statue haranks higher in propiety and prestige that do the riff raff Irish immigrants.
EphraimKibbey | Nov 10, 2012, 12:46 PM EST
Joe Kelsall - I take it you do not agree with its inscription. Sad, it is one of our nation's most treasured icons and its welcome brought such joy and relief to so many of our ancestors.
Joe Kelsall | Nov 10, 2012, 10:43 AM EST
Originally the Statue of Liberty was designed to be located at the North entrance to the Suez canal. Unfortunately, the Egyptians rejected it and it was presented to the USA. I am not sure that it was designed to withstand the NY weather. Anyway, now might be a goos time to give it back to the French.