APNewsBreak: Harry to visit storm-wrecked NJ town
May 6, 2013, 10:07 PM
POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. (AP) – The mayor of a storm-wrecked Jersey shore town said Monday that England’s Prince Harry will visit next week before heading to a news conference nearby.
Mantoloking Mayor George Nebel said Monday that Harry, an heir to the British throne, will take a short walk along Barnegat Lane, along the town’s bay front, during a brief visit on May 14. The prince will accompany Gov. Chris Christie to Seaside Heights afterward.
During a council meeting held in Point Pleasant Beach because Mantoloking’s municipal building was wrecked by the storm and attended by The Associated Press, Nebel revealed part of the prince’s itinerary for his visit to the U.S. East Coast.
“Security for this visit is being handled by the U.S. State Department so most of you won’t get anywhere near” the prince, Nebel told residents.
The prince and Christie are scheduled to take “a brief walk” along the roadway, which is in the less-seriously damaged section of the borough.
“He wanted to see the hardest-hit town in New Jersey,” Nebel said. “He’ll arrive by car, walk along the road to see 10 houses, back in the car with the governor and gone.”
Mantoloking was the Jersey shore town hit hardest by Superstorm Sandy, which was spawned in late October when Hurricane Sandy merged with two other weather systems. Every one of its 521 homes was damaged or destroyed, and the storm surge split the narrow borough in half, cutting between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay a new channel that took a massive emergency construction project to fill in.
Harry is visiting various areas of the country from May 9 to 15 and wanted to include areas of the Jersey Shore that were devastated by Sandy.
Other planned stops include an exhibition in Washington, D.C., on land mine clearance, a favorite cause of his late mother, Princess Diana; a British Ambassador’s reception and visits to Arlington National Cemetery and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
In Colorado, the prince is due to attend a diplomatic reception in Denver and the 2013 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs.
In New York City, Harry’s visit will include an event promoting a community baseball program involving a new partnership with the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, which bills itself as the culmination of the charity lives of Harry and his brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate.
Harry also will take in a polo cup match in Connecticut.
___
Wayne Parry can be reached at
http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
