Seven dead in Georgia as officials investigate ‘catastrophic failure’ of dock gangway

At least seven people have been killed after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black descendants of enslaved people, authorities said.

Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them with critical injuries, and crews from the US Coast Guard, the McIntosh county fire department, the Georgia department of natural resources and others were searching the water, according to spokesperson Tyler Jones of the Georgia department of natural resources, which operates the dock. Three of them remained hospitalized, said the natural resources department’s commissioner, Walter Rabon.

Rabon said authorities were investigating a “catastrophic failure” of an aluminum dock gangway that sent at least 20 people plunging into the water.

“It is a structural failure,” Rabon said at a news conference Sunday. “There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds.”

A team of engineers and construction specialists planned to be on site early Sunday to begin investigating why the walkway – installed in 2021 – failed, Jones said.

“There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, Jones said. “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”

Helicopters and boats with side-scanning sonar were used in the search, according to a Department of Natural Resources statement.

Among the dead was a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Jones said. None of the seven people killed were residents of the island.

There were more than 40 people on the gangway when it collapsed, Rabon said. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.

The ferry dock was rebuilt after Georgia officials in October 2020 settled a federal lawsuit by residents of the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, who complained the state-operated ferry boats and docks they rely upon to travel between Sapelo Island the mainland failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

The state agreed to demolish and replace outdated docks while upgrading ferry boats to accommodate people in wheelchairs and those with impaired hearing. The state also paid a cash settlement of $750,000.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, said he and his family were “heartbroken by [the] tragedy on Sapelo Island” on Saturday.

“As state and local first responders continue to work this active scene, we ask that all Georgians join us in praying for those lost, for those still in harm’s way, and for their families,” Kemp said on the social media platform X.

Joe Biden said federal officials were ready to provide any assistance needed.

“What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation,” the president said in a statement. “Jill and I mourn those who lost their lives, and we pray for the injured and anyone still missing. We are also grateful to the first responders at the scene.”

Sapelo Island is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat.

Cultural Day is an annual fall event spotlighting Hogg Hummock, which is home to a few dozen Black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded by former enslaved people from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.

Hogg Hummock’s slave descendants are extremely close, having been “bonded by family, bonded by history and bonded by struggle”, said Roger Lotson, the only Black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners. His district includes Sapelo Island.

“Everyone is family, and everyone knows each other,” Lotson said. “In any tragedy, especially like this, they are all one. They’re all united. They all feel the same pain and the same hurt.”

Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the south – known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia – are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.

In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States’ treasured historic sites.

But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.

Tax increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh county have been met by protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. They have been battling for the past year to undo zoning changes approved by county commissioners in September 2023 that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock.

Residents say they fear larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.