East coast, USA - Despite Hurricane Irene’s wrath, it would seem that the East coast’s amusements parks managed to prepare themselves appropriately. As the then Category 2 hurricane began to move up the east coast on Friday, parks from Virginia up to Massachusetts closed in preparation.

Six Flags Great Adventure was one of the few parks that did not open as scheduled on Monday. The park, in East-central New Jersey was hit harder than most of the other parks that COASTER-net covered before the storm. Fortunately, they released a statement on their facebook page on Sunday that “all coasters are secure.”

Morey’s Piers in Wildwood, New Jersey also did not open as scheduled yesterday, but have told fans on their facebook page that they will re-open on Tuesday. The park closed the earliest on the East coast, and went through extensive storm preparations. On Sunday, the park stated, “We're not under water! (As some reports are saying).” Morey’s Piers intends on being back to full operations when they open tomorrow.

Dorney Park closed early on Saturday for storm preparations, whereas nearby parks Knoebels and Hershey Park continued to be open as normal throughout the time the hurricane hit. Unfortunately for patrons, though, rides were shut down periodically due to high winds.

In Virginia, parks were facing possibly the worst of the storm. Fortunately, Doswell’s Kings Dominion cheerily told its fans, “Good Morning folks…we are OPEN today! There’s a nice blue sky, everything’s been cleaned up and checked out & is ready to go!” Busch Gardens Williamsburg also stated, “We're happy to say that Busch Gardens will resume normal operation Monday, Aug. 29.”

Even with the torrential rain and high winds, all of the East coast amusement parks suffered very little to no damage. Most parks scheduled to open on Monday did so after cleaning up debris on Sunday. “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” as the saying goes, and East coast parks are still happily operating despite both an earthquake and a hurricane in one week.