GULFPORT, Fla. \u2014 The city of Gulfport can begin rebuilding the South Basin of its municipal marina after receiving a permit this month from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, nearly two years after Hurricane Helene caused severe flooding and damage.<\/p>\n
City officials said they previously had permission to demolish the damaged slips, but the new permit allows rebuilding to begin. Demolition work started weeks ago on what remains of the 56 boat slips that were in the South Basin.<\/p>\n
Mayor Karen Love said the area remains a visible reminder of the storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it was a mess,\u201d Love said. \u201cLiterally boats that were out in the bay… the waves were so big, they came up and over those trees and crashed into boats that were tied up in their slips.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marina Director Denis Frain said the South Basin\u2019s closure continues to affect marina revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 56 slips that we\u2019re losing revenue from, so we\u2019re excited to get it back and get the marina open again for the boaters especially,\u201d Frain said.<\/p>\n
Frain said he is used to preparing for storms in his work at the marina, but Hurricane Helene affected him personally as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also lost my home in the flood,\u201d Frain said. \u201cSo having to deal with the loss of my home and then the loss of the marina was pretty intense, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project is expected to cost about $1.5 million and will use insurance and FEMA money. City officials want to finish the work by the end of the year, and a contractor is ready to begin. The city has 180 days to complete the build.<\/p>\n
Other recovery projects in the area are also moving forward. Love said she hopes the Gulfport Casino will be fully rebuilt by December of next year.<\/p>\n
The wet docks at the casino, which were recently completed, are expected to open Oct. 1 pending an inspection.<\/p>\n
The Gulfport City Commission will discuss possible rule changes for the new docks during a meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 20 at Gulfport City Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GULFPORT, Fla. \u2014 The city of Gulfport can begin rebuilding the South Basin of its municipal marina after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3125,2200,146935,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-409852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-jt-lynch","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}