SAVANNAH, Ga. — The metal gangway where dozens of people waited to board a ferry boat made a loud, creaking noise before snapping in the middle amid panicked cries from those sent plunging into the water. Some clung desperately to the railing, while others began to float away with the tidal current.
“There was no time for anyone to get off,” said Icy White, who watched from about 30 feet away at the ferry dock on Sapelo Island. “It took seconds.”
White’s family was among hundreds visiting the isolated Georgia barrier island Saturday for a fall festival spotlighting the history and culture of its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. The celebration gave way to tragedy when the gangway collapsed, sending seven visitors to their deaths.
White of Atlanta recorded video of the immediate aftermath on her cellphone and shared it with The Associated Press. It shows tourists and island residents jumping into action to rescue imperiled strangers and render aid to the injured in a remote location with few trained first responders initially on-site.
“There was no EMS that was there,” said Darrel Jenkins, White’s cousin. “We were the EMS.”
The crisis unfolded on an island isolated from the mainland
Largely unspoiled Sapelo Island, most of which is owned the state of Georgia, has no roads or bridges connecting it to the mainland. Residents and visitors typically rely on ferries operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to make the 7-mile (11-kilometer) trip.
Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon told a news conference Sunday an estimated 700 visitors showed up for the Cultural Day event hosted by residents of Hogg Hummock, a tiny enclave founded after the Civil War by slaves who had worked the island plantation of Thomas Spalding.
Rabon said his agency had 40 staff members working on the island during one of its busiest days of the year. The U.S. Coast Guard and local sheriff’s and fire departments later joined search and rescue efforts with boats and helicopters. But Rabon praised civilian bystanders for their efforts immediately after the collapse sent about 20 people into the water.
“Their quick response and action saved additional lives,” Rabon said.
Video shows a frantic scene immediately after the collapse
White’s video shows people clinging to metal railing on the broken gangway, dangling at a steep angle into the water. Some holding on at the bottom are partly submerged, while those closer to the top extend hands trying to reach and pull them up. Others pass orange life preservers to those at the bottom.
At least a dozen people floating in the water can be seen drifting away from the dock, pulled by a strong tidal current that threatened to drag them out to sea. Still recording on her phone, White runs into a dockside parking lot shouting for others to come help.
“Who can help? Who can swim? Please, help! Help! Help!” she calls out. “The bridge fell! It fell! Please help! People are in the water!”
Another video clip shows volunteers attempting to comfort a crying woman with a broken leg at the water’s edge. A few feet away, a man in latex gloves kneels performing chest compressions on someone sprawled on the ground, a muddy mix of rocks and shells.
Other footage shows volunteers using a blanket to form a makeshift stretcher for an injured woman, then carrying her toward a boat for evacuation.
The coroner identifies the dead as seniors visiting the island
The seven people killed were all seniors, ranging in age from 73 to 93, according to McIntosh County Coroner Melvin Amerson.
Officials said none of them lived on the island, and Hogg Hummock resident Reginald Hall said none of them appeared to be islanders’ family members.
They included Charles L. Houston, 77, of nearby Darien, a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Also killed were William Johnson Jr., 73, and Queen Welch, 76, both of Atlanta. The remaining four were from Jacksonville, Florida: Crews Carter, 75; Cynthia Gibbs, 74; Carlotta McIntosh, 93; Isaiah Thomas, 79.
Investigators working to determine what caused the collapse
The broken gangway was removed from the dock and taken to what the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on Monday called a “secured facility.”
An investigative team with expertise in accident reconstruction and engineering was assigned to determine what caused the collapse that Rabon, the Natural Resources commissioner, referred to Sunday as a “catastrophic failure.”
Rabon’s agency operates the Sapelo Island ferries and dock, which was rebuilt in 2021. The agency said the gangway was last inspected in December 2023 with no concerns identified.
Rabon told reporters about 40 people were standing on the gangway waiting to board a ferry when it collapsed in the middle.
Tragedy strikes a shrinking community of people descended from slaves
Hogg Hummock is among a shrinking cluster of small Southern communities descended from enslaved island populations known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia. Scholars say residents retain much of their African heritage — including a unique dialect and skills such as cast-net fishing and basket weaving — because of their separation from the mainland.
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 have sold their land to outsiders for vacation homes. Last year, county commissioners approved zoning changes that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock. That raised fears among residents that larger homes could spur tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.
Emily Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi.
