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Community Corner

Open Letter from City Manager: Long Beach Suffered Major Damage

Charles Theofan cites city's extensive damage as reason to nix Quiksilver festival and push back competition.

To the Editor:

For anyone expressing disappointment regarding the cancellation of the Quiksilver Pro festival, as of this afternoon we still have . 

That means, no hot water and a refrigerator full of spoiled food, and for those homes with basements, most are flooded. We had 33 large trees come down and are having to make garbage pickups everyday to cart away what was thrown out from basements and garages.

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Representatives from the Long Island Power Authority are telling us that we cannot reasonably expect the return of power until Sunday.  The Long Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road is not running, and will not be running for at least two to three days.

And that is by no means all of our problems, but hopefully enough to demonstrate that this City has suffered major damage and our residents are still suffering. 

Find out what's happening in Long Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Having thousands of people pouring into this city starting Friday, with music and assorted frivolity, is not possible or appropriate given the current conditions. Yet with all of that we are proceeding with the surfing competition which was and is the heart and soul of the entire event.

Responsible government sometime means having to make difficult decisions. I was also looking forward to the festival.  Hopefully this explanation will change your understanding of why things are what they are.

Charles T. Theofan
City Manager
City of Long Beach

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