Service Lumber has been there since 1927. There's no guaranty for the future

Ross Reily, Mississippi Clarion Ledger
·4 min read

ROLLING FORK — One of the oldest continuously running businesses in this South Delta town was flattened Friday night when an EF-4 wedge tornado nearly a mile wide struck in the late evening hours.

The vast majority of the town was destroyed as 13 were killed in the community. The business district was decimated and the area along the Hwy. 61, which runs north to south for around 2 miles through Rolling Fork, was turned to rubble as far as the eye can see.

Service Lumber, opened in 1927, was one of those businesses, and if Rolling Fork is to be built back, it likely will have to be built back on the strength of this business.

Service Lumber has supplied construction materials to Sharkey and Issaquena counties for decades and any project being built here gets its lumber from there.

The Virden family started the business in the late 1920s near Deer Creek and the railroad tracks in Rolling Fork soon after the Great Flood of the Mississippi Delta, but moved it out to the main highway in the latter part of the 1960s. The Virden family has continued to own the business since then. Thad Virden retired in 2018, and while he still owns the business, he has turned over the day-to-day operations to his son-in-law Brett Bailess.

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Brett Bailess with Service Lumber Company in Rolling Fork works in a makeshift office Tuesday at the location where the store stood before a tornado slammed the small Delta town. The entire store was leveled. They are trying to salvage and stack any usable product.
Brett Bailess with Service Lumber Company in Rolling Fork works in a makeshift office Tuesday at the location where the store stood before a tornado slammed the small Delta town. The entire store was leveled. They are trying to salvage and stack any usable product.

Bailess now has the monumental task of trying to building back the business. On Tuesday, he sat under a temporary tailgating-style tent with a laptop, a hot spot and a cell phone.

Yet, he is making no promises.

"This is all one day at a time," Bailess said. "We don't know what is going to happen."

While he has been in contact with his insurance company, there has been no adjuster to examine the building or give him advice on what could be next. So, he has some employees coming in to help recover anything that can be recovered and has enlisted a couple of farmer friends to come in and move some of the debris to help just to be able to get around the property.

Everyone who works for Service Lumber came out of the storm without injuries, but many had significant home damage and two lost their homes completely.

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One told Bailess that she grabbed her child and her pet and jumped in the bathtub at the last moment before the tornado swept through. When all had passed a few minutes later, the only thing left standing on her property at the Southwest end of town was the bathroom that surrounded the tub she and her family were in.

Bailess was at a family event out of town when someone from his church called him about the storm. He rushed to Rolling Fork from the Jackson area to find Service Lumber flattened and the town in shambles.

"We are kind of in an I-don't-know-stage right now," Bailess said. "All I can say now is that I am committed to doing what I can do tomorrow. While the insurance company isn't here yet, I am not going to sit around and waste time. We are staying busy."

Brett Bailess, from right, with Service Lumber Company in Rolling Fork, and local farmers Charles Durst of Delta City and Jeffrey Mitchell of Cary, walk through the remains of the store Tuesday talking about what needs to be done next. The store was destroyed when a tornado slammed the small Delta town. The farmers are helping to clear an area to put up a temporary shelter.

The plan is to bring in a temporary office in the next day or two and work from there.

"We have computers purchased and getting printers and supplies. We are gearing up to do something. I am not sure what that is going to look like just yet," Bailess said.

But to the future of the business and whether there is long-term viability to rebuilding, he is not sure.

"I just can't answer that question right now. There are just too many unknown factors," Bailess said. "I have told my employees that I am committed to doing everything I can right now and tomorrow and the next day and anything we can do for the community, But beyond the right now, I have no insight."

He said that he will know more in the coming weeks but that are too many pieces of the puzzle to put together now to know for sure. In the meantime, despite having no money coming in, he is paying all of his employees and doing everything he can to keep moving the ball down the field.

"The problem right now is the puzzle changes by the hour," Bailess said.

Service Lumber Company employees Roosevelt Patterson, left, of Rolling Fork, and Audie Heranney, right, of Hollandale discuss the salvage plan for the day at the Rolling Fork lumber company on Tuesday, after an EF-4 tornado destroyed the building last Friday.
Service Lumber Company employees Roosevelt Patterson, left, of Rolling Fork, and Audie Heranney, right, of Hollandale discuss the salvage plan for the day at the Rolling Fork lumber company on Tuesday, after an EF-4 tornado destroyed the building last Friday.

In a perfect world, he said he can envision clearing debris, placing a temporary office, then bringing in lumber and selling to people who need it in order to start rebuilding Rolling Fork.

"There are a lot of things to procure, budget and look at financially," Bailess said. "That's why my goal is as fast as possible to become temporarily operational. This is a skeleton operation right now, but I need to try and keep my employees employed and help the community as fast as possible."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Service Lumber in Rolling Fork destroyed by tornado but hopes to rebuild