Georgia authorities investigating ‘catastrophic’ failure of boat dock gangway that killed 7 during Gullah-Geechee festival

By Dalia Faheid, Ashley R. Williams, Michelle Watson, Melissa Alonso and Sharif Paget, CNN

(CNN) — Authorities are investigating the cause of a partial ferry dock collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island that turned a day of celebration into tragedy, leaving at least seven dead and six critically injured as crowds gathered for a cultural festival.

In the midst of a celebration of the island’s small Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants, a gangway collapsed on the visitor ferry dock shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday and plunged at least 20 people into the water, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Capt. Chris Hodge said at a Saturday night news conference.

There were as many as 40 people on the gangway when it collapsed Saturday, department Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a Sunday news conference. Authorities believe the seven people deceased were visitors to the area.

The gangway was completed in November of 2021, said Rabon. “There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that,” he said, adding that there were “almost daily inspections.”

A team of engineers and construction specialists was at the dock early Sunday to begin investigating why it failed, natural resources department spokesperson Tyler Jones told the Associated Press.

“The gangway has been secured on Sapelo Island and the incident is currently under investigation,” the department, which manages the island and operates the ferry service, said in a news release Saturday night. Ferries typically depart from the Sapelo-side dock three times a day, taking visitors to the mainland dock in Meridian.

“The initial findings of our investigation at this point show a catastrophic failure … of the gangway causing it to collapse,” Rabon said.

Among those who died was a chaplain for the agency, spokesperson Melissa Cummings confirmed to CNN. Rabon on Sunday described the chaplain, Charles Houston, as “a dear friend who served as a DNR, Georgia State Patrol and Georgia Bureau of Investigation chaplain for the state.”

Houston, who served 40 years as an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, was also a volunteer firefighter in Plains, Georgia, according to his biography.

Details about other people who died are yet to be released. Two of those injured were flown by air ambulance to hospitals for treatment, Hodge said.

Savannah State University students were among those who were rescued Saturday and “are safe,” the university’s Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences said on Facebook.

The natural resources department said multiple other emergency agencies assisted them by deploying boats equipped with side-scan sonar and helicopters for search and rescue missions. A reunification point was set up at an area church where those searching for family members could gather, the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office said.

CNN has reached out to the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office, McIntosh County EMS and the US Coast Guard for more information.

“I can assure you that the Department of Natural Resources critical incident reconstruction team will be working tirelessly in conjunction with engineers and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to gather … evidence, and interview witnesses,” said Rabon.

President Joe Biden has spoken with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and the county commissioner about the collapse. Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday said she’s praying for the community.

The tragedy happened during Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Awareness Month, which is celebrated in October in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Sapelo Island Cultural And Revitalization Society, which hosts the island’s annual Cultural Day Festival, said it was grateful for the support people have shown.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones who lost their lives and who were injured,” the non-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve Gullah-Geechee culture, land and community on Sapelo Island, said in a Facebook post. “The Sapelo Island community is grateful for the outpouring of love and support and we ask that you join us in praying for the families of those who were impacted by this tragedy.”

The nearby city of Darien in McIntosh County said, “a day of celebration has turned to tragedy following an accident.”

The tragedy comes after the island suffered damage during Hurricane Helene, including a six-day power outage, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“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,” Biden said Saturday.

He added the White House is in touch with state and local officials to provide any assistance that would be helpful to the community.

Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia said he was “deeply saddened” by the news in Sapelo Island, saying it was “a tragic end to a joyous celebration.”

“Praying for the loved ones of those we sadly lost and those still missing,” he said in a post on X on Saturday night. “The heart of every Georgian is with the Gullah Geechee community & the people of Sapelo Island tonight.”

Attendee’s video captures ‘chaotic’ collapse aftermath

Tendaji Bailey, a seventh-generation Gullah-Geechee descendant who was on Sapelo Island for Saturday’s well-attended celebration, told CNN after the event ended, rumors began swirling that a bridge had collapsed on the island.

Bailey, 35, said he got in a car with a commissioner for the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and drove around trying to locate which bridge may have fallen before coming up on the dock.

“It was a very chaotic scene,” said Bailey, of South Carolina. “Many people in tears, screaming, crying, people just shocked from the horror of the moment.”

Bailey captured video that showed several rescuers by the shoreline down from the dock retrieving bodies from the water.

“They were rescuing bodies that had floated away,” Bailey said.

One of his videos showed a man running with an orange stretcher. Bailey said he saw at least two people on the dock receiving CPR.

“Just to think of people being shocked after being submerged in the water is terrifying,” Bailey said.

“It’s just an unthinkable, (unimaginable) moment, especially after such a wonderful event,” he said. “It was just really, really horrific.”

‘Everyone is family’ in one of Georgia’s last Gullah-Geechee communities

Sapelo Island – a barrier island off the coast of Georgia accessible only by boat or ferry – is home to the Hogg Hammock community of a few dozen full-time residents, according to Explore Georgia. Many of them are known as Gullah-Geechee people, who descended from enslaved Africans who were brought to the island in 1802 and worked on coastal plantations.

Hogg Hammock’s Gullah-Geechee community members are extremely close, having been “bonded by family, bonded by history and bonded by struggle,” Roger Lotson of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners told the AP. 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.”

Historians believe Hogg Hammock, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, is one of the last surviving Gullah-Geechee communities in the Georgia Sea Islands.

The extremely tight-knit community has retained many of their West African cultural traditions and languages, passing them from one generation to the next. That includes practicing the ancient African art of basket making, keeping alive the ring shout music folk tradition, making a living by fishing shrimps and harvesting oysters, and speaking in an English-based creole vernacular known as Gullah.

On Saturday, island residents and visitors attended the six-hour-long Cultural Day that honored those Gullah-Geechee traditions with African dance performances, native food vendors and historic tours.

Jerald J. Thomas, a pastor at Elm Grove Church near the site of the collapse, told CNN affiliate WTOC that the community came together to help after the tragedy.

“They came together quickly, and they began to send the necessary things that was needed in order to make the people’s stay, while they were going through this tragic time, more bearable,” Thomas said.

A number of island residents are older and on fixed incomes, Sapelo Island descendant Josiah “Jazz” Watts previously told CNN. Last year, a zoning change raising the maximum square footage of a heated-and-cooled house was met with concern by residents who said it would allow the wealthy to build properties in the community and lead to high property taxes.

Only 29 original descendants are left in the community, Maurice Bailey, a local historian and ninth-generation Hogg Hammock resident, told CNN last year. He estimated descendants own 63% of the properties and 75% of the acreage on Sapelo Island.

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CNN’s Zoe Sottile, Philip Wang, Chandelis Duster, Adeline Chen and Teo Kermeliotis contributed to this report.