After Hurricane Sandy, a roller coaster of recovery
Jersey Shore shows promise as famed ride finally rebuilt after 2012 storm damage
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J.— It was one of the indelible images of the wrath of Hurricane Sandy: a famous Jersey Shore roller coaster reduced to a twisted, mangled wreck in the surf off Seaside Heights, its decades-old iron and steel slicing the coming waves.
It was removed months later, but the gash along the coast remained for years, the emptiness above the rehabilitated pier an ever-present reminder of the worst natural disaster to strike New Jersey in decades.
Now, perhaps quicker than some expected, there is a new coaster where the old one once stood. And this one is different. Gone are the classic dips and turns of the rickety old Jet Star, the thundering vibrations of its cars rippling through the boardwalk wood.
In its place is a shiny new ride that looks as if it was plucked from the fields in nearby Jackson, where the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park sprawls for acres. Called the Hydrus, it is a twisted green behemoth, featuring a steep inverted drop, a full loop and two more inversions. The coaster’s new tracks run eerily silent, the faint hums of the rail car often drowned out by the high-pitched squeals of riders.
Construction on the coaster began in January and was completed in just five months, after years of planning. It opened to riders in early May, raising not just the adrenalin of riders but the resolve of a coastline that, after five years, is still battling back from the destruction wrought by the superstorm in 2012.
“It was a very big moment,” the Storino family, the owners of the Casino Pier amusement centre that is home to the coaster, said in a statement. “We can now say we are fully back and can close the books on the superstorm era.”
Of course, while Casino Pier may feel it can close the books, the rest of the town is still not fully mended. Mayor Tony Vaz estimates that his town is about “70 per cent back,” with about $200 million in taxable property still missing from prestorm totals.
Up and down the Jersey Shore, towns are still struggling. Empty lots dot shore roads, half-built homes sit stagnant and half-destroyed homes have been abandoned.
But Vaz also sees a silver lining in the destruction wrought by Sandy: a blank slate that allows the town made famous by the drunken shenanigans of MTV’s Jersey Shore to shed its boozy reputation.
“It’s in our history book, past tense; we’ll never do that again,” he said of the Jersey Shore days. He pointed to new restaurants, a bakery on the boardwalk, nights where families can camp on the beach and the many “new structures” like the Hydrus as a sign of the new Seaside Heights.
It took nearly five years to rebuild the wooden pier for the coaster to rest on. The Jet Star was built on a part of the pier that jutted out far into the ocean. As they thought about rebuilding, venturing back out into the sea with the memory of Sandy still fresh seemed less than ideal, so the Storino family offered the town a land swap. In exchange for the right to build along the beach, the amuse- ment park donated land to expand public parking.
The owners say the Hydrus name is an allusion to the Jet Star because it is the name of a constellation. Riders flocking to the new attraction on a recent weekend could not help but feel a pang of nostalgia as the coaster’s crest offered a similar panoramic view of the Seaside shore as the old coaster.
“It was a little nostalgic, yeah, I’d say, but now it’s like everything is being rebuilt up, and it’s much better now, and we go on,” said Ryan Heath, a 19-year-old college student from Allendale, N.J., who remembered riding the old coaster and seeing it in the ocean. “It kind of looked like the Titanic a little bit. It was bad.”
Images of the old coaster sitting crumpled in the surf have become memorabilia. T-shirts in memory of the Jet Star are sold in the many shops that offer wares bearing humorous and vulgar sayings (one sleeveless shirt sold down the boardwalk from Casino Pier bragged, “I flexed and the sleeves fell off”).
John Donovan, 72, of nearby Berkley Township, was wearing a lightblue shirt with the Jet Star on the back. He said he and his wife had been coming by every weekend, watching the Hydrus rise, though he noted that in other places along the shore, the rebuilding was occurring at a much slower pace.
“That’s just this pier,” he said. “It takes time. Everything takes time. Even in Bayville they’re working on a park that was wrecked in Sandy, and they’re still working on it. It’s still not done.”
While there were no Hydrus shirts visible yet on the boardwalk, the frequent screams coming from the boardwalk were evidence that the new thrill ride, even at the seemingly steep price of $10 a ride, was already a welcome addition.
“When we got here, we were just like, oh, we have to go on that,” said Brooke Rongo, 17, from Hazlet, N.J. She was one of six young women who arrived after their junior prom, and were still buzzing as they walked down the exit ramp, so excited that they left a conversation with a reporter to run and ride again.
“We can now say we are fully back and can close the books on the superstorm era.” STORINO FAMILY OWNERS OF CASINO PIER