Biloxi still seeking FEMA funds to rebuild storm-damaged pier
City officials told the council Tuesday that Biloxi has spent nearly six years and roughly $1.9 million trying to rebuild the Lighthouse Pier, destroyed by Hurricane Zeta in October 2020, while still awaiting final FEMA hazard-mitigation funding.
A city department head, identified in the meeting only as Mr. Weaver, gave the report at the October 7, 2026, Biloxi City Council meeting. He said an engineering firm had estimated mitigation costs at $1.2 million, but FEMA reduced that figure. "That mitigation figure was instead of being... our opinion of a probable cost by the engineering firm of $1.2 million was whittled down to $848,000, which is in my opinion ridiculous," he told the council.
Weaver said the city has already spent $188,580 on engineering design and that the project is essentially ready to put out to bid once FEMA funding is confirmed.
The report illustrates the slow pace of disaster-recovery bureaucracy facing local governments after major storms. Nearly six years after Hurricane Zeta, Biloxi has committed close to $1.9 million in combined city and federal money toward the pier project, yet remains dependent on federal approval before construction can begin, underscoring the cost of delay to a long-stalled public infrastructure project.