Long Beach met with FEMA to assess Irene damage

Long Beach city public works officials met with disaster recovery representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Association on Friday to begin assessing the damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene.

City manager Jack Schnirman and city council president Fran Adelson joined the group for a tour of the areas most affected by the late August storm.

“We were tremendously hard-hit by the hurricane, and today they were focusing on the coastline damage and debris,” Schnirman said Friday.

Most of the damage surveyed last week was at Magnolia Park and along the boardwalk, including the loss of a large lifeguard shack that was swept away by the rough seas, Schnirman said.

Long Beach officials were hesitant to estimate how much damage the storm caused and how much the city has spent in storm recovery, but former city manager Charles Theofan said in November that “Irene cost us $1 million that we did not anticipate.”

Schnirman said the city will continue to work with FEMA to finalize the numbers from the damage, and said FEMA should have an estimate in the coming months.

Photo: Waters from Hurricane Irene  flood a Long Beach streetn early Sunday. (Aug. 28, 2011)