One of the most iconic scenes snapped at the Jersey Shore in the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s wrath was the Jet Star roller coaster. The ride was privately owned by Casino Pier, one of two amusement piers in Seaside Heights that were devastated by the storm on October 29, 2012. The coaster’s removal was delayed for months while the company wrangled with insurers and contractors over a rare engineering feat of removing a coaster from the sea. By May 2014, the coaster was removed, but a void remained in the hearts of roller coaster enthusiasts who longed for a replacement after Sandy’s wrath.
Casino Pier & Breakwater Beach recently announced that a new roller coaster will be erected in time for the 2017 season, filling that void. The roller coaster, which has yet to be named, is a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter model roller coaster which has a 72-foot vertical lift and beyond-vertical drop. A first drop of 97° starts the thrill ride, which shoots along at 45mph. Passengers will glide the 1,050-foot coaster track which includes a vertical loop, an Immelman turn and a heartline roll during its run.
Beyond the Jet Star coaster, The Stillwalk Manor, a haunted house-type ride, The Centrifuge, and the Log Flume all plunged off the pier and into the waves when Sandy made landfall in 2012. A fifth ride, the Music Express, also landed on the beach but was salvaged a few days after the storm.
In addition to this new replacement coaster, a large Ferris wheel is also being built. The Ferris wheel, manufactured by Technical Park, will be located on an expanded pier being built now and will rise 131 feet into the air. The new attraction will give guests sitting in 6-passenger compartments an opportunity to see the boardwalk, the beach, and the Atlantic Ocean 5 years after Sandy changed the landscape.
Since the 2012 storm, only 2016’s Hurricane Hermine came close to the Jersey Shore. While creating some storm surge flooding, the storm missed the Garden State sparing it from most wind and flood damage.
