Seven people are dead and eight injured after a gangway to a ferry dock collapsed during a cultural event for descendants of black slaves.
About 20 people crowded onto the gangway on Sapelo Island in Georgia and were thrown into a fast-flowing river about 4.30pm on Saturday.
Of the eight people taken to hospital, at least six of them have critical injuries. Many of the dead and injured were elderly including one who was seen using a walker.
The passengers were waiting to board a ferry on the remote island nature reserve about 20 minutes by ferry from the mainland.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the ferry, said it was not yet known how the gangway failed and broke apart.
‘There was no collision’ with a boat or anything else,’ spokesman Tyler Jones said. ‘The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.’
US Coast Guard ships were still searching late on Saturday night for missing people after first responders were delayed by the only route to the island being blocked.
Many of the dead were elderly and include a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Jones said.
Onlookers, including university students attending the festival, jumped into the water to try to save those who were drowning.
One of the victims was an elderly woman who was using a walker at the time the gangway collapsed.
McIntosh County Commissioner Roger Lotson told GPB the dock involved in the Georgia collapse was ‘less than a year old’.
‘Even if the ferry hit the dock, you’d think the construction requirements would be that it could sustain that,’ he said.
The dock was being used by crowds during Cultural Day, a celebration among the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of black slave descendants.
Sapleo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah and is only reachable from the mainland by a 20 minute ferry ride operated by Natural Resources.
Crews from US Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and others were searching the water for survivors on Saturday evening.
Rescue boats equipped with side-scan sonar and helicopters were used to scour the Duplin River and surrounding waters.
A team of engineers and construction specialists plan to be on site early on Sunday to begin investigating why the walkway failed.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he was heartbroken by the loss of life, and sent state resources to help with the search, rescue, and recovery.
‘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,’ he said.
President 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,’ he said.
‘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.
‘Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved, including the entire Sapelo Island Community.’
The deadly collapse happened as island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen black residents.
The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the Civil War by former slaves 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,’ Lotson, the only black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners, said.
‘Everyone is family, and everyone knows each other. In any tragedy, especially like this, they are all one. They’re all united. They all feel the same pain and the same hurt.’
Lotson’s district includes Sapelo Island.
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.
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.
Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.
Tax increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh County were 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 said they feared bigger homes would lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families held for generations.