State parks attendance off 3.6 percent for year, largely due to Irene

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

Tropical Storm Irene put a major damper on attendance at New York state parks and historic sites going into the unofficial last week of the summer.

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation says today that this year’s attendance at 178 state parks and 35 historic sites was just less than 44 million through Labor Day, down 1.6 million from 2010.

Parks officials say through Aug. 26, the day before Hurricane Irene hit the New York City area, total attendance was down less than 1 percent, compared to the 3.6-percent decline when the period is extended through Sept. 6.

The state closed 95 parks on Aug. 27 for safety reasons. The storm caused flooding and other damage in the eastern half of the state during the following days.