SUMNER — Previously storm-ravaged and vacated buildings at R.H. Bearden Elementary School bore a new luster during a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony.
School official Larry Gordon said the recent celebration heralded the reopening of the west and southwest wings of the school, which had been closed since a January 2020 windstorm inflicted extensive damage to the property.
The school lost large sections of its metal roof to the storm and also sustained interior damage. In some areas of the school, the metal roof was simply peeled back, while in others it was ripped off in sheets, some of it landing in the school’s parking lot.
A large sheet of metal roofing material rests against a utility pole after being blown off the roof of a nearby building at R.H. Bearden Elementary School in Sumner on Jan. 11, 2020. (Photo by Lekeathia Hampton)
In the aftermath of the storm, Bearden’s over 300 students were housed in other buildings within the West Tallahatchie School District — kindergartners through fourth-graders at North Delta Alternative School and fifth- and sixth-graders at West Tallahatchie High School.
In early 2024, portable classroom buildings were brought in to reunite Bearden students who had been displaced by the storm four years earlier. Meanwhile, a project of comprehensive repairs got underway to restore the Bearden facilities.
