Biloxi Mayor Asks For State of Emergency

The Mayor of Biloxi wants to see the bridge that was hit by a barge last week repaired in sixty days or less. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on the likelihood of that being completed.

With only two months until Hurricane Season begins Mayor A.J. Holloway asked Biloxi’s city council to declare a state of emergency to help get the Popp’s Ferry Bridge, one of Biloxi’s main hurricane evacuation routes, fixed as quickly as possible. Vincent Creel is city spokesmen,

“What the state of emergency does first off it says we think this is vital, this is something that needs to be done. It authorizes and gives the mayor extraordinary powers to be able to get things done.”

One of the mayor’s first actions was to allow the Mississippi Department of Transportation to take over the responsibility of rebuilding the bridge. This was the same plan used after the bridge was damaged by Hurricane Katrina,

“What we did after Hurricane Katrina, we were able to get that bridge up and running within four months after the storm. MDOT’s able to move a lot quicker because they don’t face a lot of the same obstacles we would face if we were to try and do this through the city of Biloxi.”

Creel says the track record MDOT has with repairing the bridge makes the city confident that the bridge will be open by the time hurricane season begins.