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Read the press release here.

Sandy Damage Shutters Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Until 2013

By Aidan Gardiner | November 28, 2012 10:51am

NEW YORK CITY — Lady Liberty managed to make it through Hurricane Sandy unscathed, but the island around her wasn't so lucky. 

The red bricks along the pathways around the statue were uprooted and strewn about by the storm and a long pier serving the island was ripped off its support beams. 

Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island will remain closed through 2012 because they were too badly battered by the storm, National Parks Service announced Wednesday. 

Officials had completed their initial assessment of landmarks and determined that they were too damaged to reopen to the public any time soon. 

A reopening date hasn't been set, but that it certainly won't happen until 2013, officials said. 

Facilities on Ellis Island were also battered by Sandy. A trailer containing an office for park police was shredded. Flood waters brought a police boat ashore and wedged it between a cooling plant and a trailer. And officials even reported that a 19th Century furnishing from the iconic immigration facility had washed ashore in New Jersey.