Ellis Island has been swept by waves of immigrants and come through unscathed, but last year’s Superstorm Sandy was more than it could handle.
Just a year ago Sandy blew out the doors and windows and covered the island in New York Harbor with eight feet of water, filling the basement and destroying the systems that run the electricity, heating and air conditioning, and telephones.
There was no power for months.
This week, though, the island that welcomed 12 million immigrants to our shores began receiving visitors again. More than 1,000 showed up on Monday alone.
The Immigration Museum still has more than a million photographs and artifacts in storage, and the computers people use to research their ancestors are still not functional, but the main building and many exhibits are open again, and the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan shimmer on the horizon.
The full restoration of the Beaux-Arts-style building will take 18 months and cost $21 million.
