U.S. News

Mayor of Tornado-Ravaged City Rolling Fork Is Also Its Funeral Director

‘IT WILL TAKE TIME’

Eldridge Walker is supporting residents of Friday’s disaster in more ways than one.

An aerial view of the wreckage in the town after thunderstorms spawning high straight-line winds and tornadoes ripped across the state in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
Cheney Orr/Reuters

The mayor of the Mississippi town hardest hit by Friday’s tornado is offering his support not only as the mayor, but as the town’s funeral director. Approximately 85 percent of the homes in the Rolling Fork area were either damaged or destroyed by the tornado, and 25 were killed. Mayor Eldridge Walker is helping to clean up while also helping grieving families with their loss. “The daughter of one of the victims called and told me, ‘You’re going to have to help me get through this, Butch,’” Walker told The Tennessean. “My grandparents told me to always be prepared for the unexpected.” Walker said funerals had not yet been scheduled due to damage caused by the tornado at the funeral home, which will eventually handle services for four of the victims. “I don’t know how we are going to work it out, but we are going to have to make arrangements to make it happen,” he told the paper, adding that “we want to make sure displaced families are being taken care of... that is being done. We are well on our way to bringing Rolling Fork back to the way it once was and make it even better... it will just take time.”

Read it at The Tennessean