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The city of Long Beach's fight to repair the port is heading to federal court

LONG BEACH, Miss. (WLOX) – The city of Long Beach continues its fight for federal money to repair its harbor. Now it waits for a jury of federal judges to make its decision.

Last Thursday, the city and its lawyers appeared before judges to decide FEMA's offer to the city.

“They came back with an extremely low financial number; $2.3 million to rehabilitate our entire port,” said Mayor George Bass. “We felt we had suffered more damage than they were allowing as part of the project. So we appealed. FEMA came back and denied our appeal.”

The city then requested arbitration.

FEMA's scope of work is part of Long Beach's argument to federal judges. The federal authority made mistakes, said the mayor.

“They had no screws – the right screws, if they had them. You'll ruin the deck again. They didn't have that there. Even the wood wasn't seawood. It was some wood you could pick up at Home Depot or Lowes.”

However, FEMA argues that not all of the damage occurred during Zeta. Mayor Bass said that was also wrong.

“Before the storm we had a fully functioning port. They began to question our masts. Did the storm actually damage these poles? We inspect and maintain the masts in the port and keep them updated.”

The city estimates repairing the port will cost $11 million. She hopes federal judges agree and overrule FEMA.

“We have to fix this. We know our citizens – they deserve to have our port open and we are doing everything we can.”

The federal judges are expected to announce their decision in February 2025.

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