“The City of Vidalia was wonderful to us and we can’t thank them enough for all they did,” Costello said. “Hopefully it will never happen again.”

Comfort Suites

The Comfort Suites hotel and Royale Salon and Med Spa also sustained minimal physical damage because of protection by the Hesco baskets.

General manager of the hotel and director of the salon and spa Clara Nell Brown said that insurance covered costs for the minimal damage that occurred, but that the greatest toll came from revenue lost.

Brown estimates the lost revenue for both the hotel and spa at approximately $1.2 million.

Much of that lost revenue came after the waters receded but before Hesco baskets were removed to make the hotel accessible.

The baskets couldn’t be removed until FEMA offered its OK, and once they were moved, more repairs to the road and parking lot delayed the hotel’s reopening, Brown said.

Despite the time taken to remove the baskets and repair damage, Brown said she and the owner Virgil Jackson are extremely grateful to the State of Louisiana, the City of Vidalia and the Corps of Engineers for their hard work.

“The mayor of Vidalia, Hyram Copeland, was the leading force in saving the Riverfront properties,” Brown said.

Vidalia Dock and Storage

A family-owned business with 55 years of experience catering to barges along the Mississippi River was the first to fall victim to the floodwaters and the last to see the waters recede.

Vidalia Dock and Storage ultimately took on the most water and suffered the most physical damage from the flooding in the area.

The business evacuated in early May, moving out all belongings and shutting down daily operations at its Vidalia Riverfront site.

Owner Carla Jenkins said in late June that she had spent a high dollar amount on labor, overtime and equipment needed to secure the property.

Two buildings on the site flooded with seven or eight feet of water.

Jenkins could not be reached after multiple attempts this week for an update.

J.M. Jones Lumber

Even after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard told Lee Jones the chances of his 100-year-old business surviving the flood were minimal, Jones wasn’t going to stand around while his business swept away with the water.

“We just never stopped thinking we weren’t going to make it,” Jones said. “We said ‘We’ll roll the dice and keep going.’”

Jones and the rest of the crew at J.M. Jones Lumber in Natchez quickly jumped into action, adding an additional 5 to 6 feet of protection onto an existing private levee on their property.

As the river continued to rise, Jones said the height of the water wasn’t as big of a concern as the wakes caused by boats in the river.

“We just tried to tell (the Coast Guard) to slow those boats down coming down the river because those boats would push the water and it would crash it into the levee,” Jones said. “Eventually they came around and put a no speed zone and restriction on the boats for like three weeks, which probably saved us, Vidalia and those baskets.”

The site didn’t flood, and the staff-made levee held.

The sawmills were closed down for almost four weeks, but the company’s yard ran at about 60 percent during that time.

The company spent approximately $700,000 building up its levees in labor and material costs, including sand bags and dirt, Jones said.

Jones said the company calculated approximately $1 million for money spent and revenue lost.