ST. LOUIS — City officials on Thursday said the federal government has offered new assistance in cleaning up after the May tornado.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won't take over the job, Mayor Cara Spencer said on Thursday, as the city had hoped. But she said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide $63 million and technical assistance to the city and state as they work to remove an estimated 1 million tons of debris left in the wake of the storm.

And the state will manage the job, Spencer said, relieving the city of a big administrative burden.

“This isn’t exactly what the city asked for,” Spencer said. But she said that with Trump administration reworking FEMA’s mission, the offer was the “very best” the city could get.

City Hall previously said it needed the Army Corp

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