At least 7 dead after Georgia ferry dock gangway collapses

Officials on a Georgia island Sunday were investigating the collapse of a ferry dock gangway the previous day that killed seven people and left three others hospitalized. The dock was carrying people gathered for an annual celebration of a community of slave descendants.

The deaths on Sapelo Island were confirmed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which manages the island and operates its ferry service. The island is about 70 miles south of Savannah, Georgia, by road.

The department said Sunday that 20 people went into the water when the gangway collapsed and that three people remained in critical condition. All of the people who went into the water have been accounted for.

Melvin Amerson, the McIntosh County coroner, said the ages of those who died ranged from 73 to 93. Four were women, and three were men. They have all been identified, and their families have been notified, he said, adding that the county was not releasing the names yet. He also said that he thought most of the fatalities were from drowning but that it wasn’t definite; autopsies would be performed this week.

The middle of the gangway, which was built in 2021, collapsed because of a structural failure, but the cause of that breakdown is still under investigation, said Walter Rabon, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He added that the gangway should have been able to carry the amount of people on it Saturday, and he described the collapse as “catastrophic.”

“Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones,” he said.

Hundreds of people visited Sapelo Island on Saturday to attend an annual festival that celebrates the heritage of the Gullah Geechee people, said Griffin Lotson, mayor pro-tempore of the nearby city of Darien, Georgia. No island residents were believed to be among the dead, officials said.

The Gullah Geechee, who live along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida, are descendants of enslaved West African people who were brought to the southeastern United States more than two centuries ago. The Gullah Geechee who live on Sapelo, a small island with only a few dozen permanent residents, are descendants of slaves who were brought there in the early 19th century.

The Sapelo Island festival honors their language, cuisine and art, said Lotson, a seventh-generation Gullah Geechee.

“The day is about all of the culture,” he said by phone late Saturday. “From Africa, to the way that it was on the plantation, to the 21st century with the young folks and what they do.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that federal support had been offered to local officials to assist the community.

“Even in the face of this heartbreak, we will continue to celebrate and honor the history, culture, and resilience of the Gullah-Geechee community,” Harris said.

The cultural festival is organized by the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society, a nonprofit that helps to preserve the heritage of the Gullah Geechee people. The society said in a post on Facebook that it was “heartbroken” over the accident.

J.R. Grovner, who owns Sapelo Island Tours, a company that uses the dock, was on the scene shortly after the gangway collapsed. As he arrived at the dock, he said, he saw bodies floating in the Duplin River.

“Most of the bodies were already on the edge of the river, and people were pulling them up,” Grovner said by phone Saturday night, adding that several of the victims appeared to be elderly. He said he had helped to check some of their pulses as people at the scene administered CPR.

“I’ve been on Sapelo for 44 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Grovner said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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