CNN
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There are officers iAn investigation into the cause of a partial ferry dock collapse on Georgia’s Sabelo Island turned a day of celebration into tragedy, killing at least seven people and injuring six more as people gathered for a cultural festival.
Amid a celebration by the island’s small Gullah-Keechee community of black slave descendants, a mob collapsed on a visitor’s boat dock shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday, drowning at least 20 people, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Capt. Chris Hodge said at a Saturday night news conference.
There were 40 people in the gangway when it collapsed Saturday, department commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference Sunday. Officials believe the seven dead were visitors to the area.
The gangway is expected to be completed by November 2021, Raban said. “An aluminum gangway like this should have very, very little maintenance,” he said, adding that there are “almost daily inspections.”
A team of engineers and construction experts arrived at the dock early Sunday morning to begin investigating why it failed, Department of Natural Resources spokesman Tyler Jones said. Associated Press.
“The gangway at Sabelo Island has been secured and the incident is currently under investigation,” the department, which manages the island and operates the ferry service, said in a statement. Press release Saturday night. Boats that take visitors to the main dock in Meridian usually depart from the Sapelo-side dock three times a day.
“At this point the preliminary findings of our investigation show a catastrophic failure … gang way that caused the collapse,” Robben said.
The agency’s chaplain was among the dead, spokeswoman Melissa Cummings confirmed to CNN. Robben on Sunday described Charles Houston as a “dear friend who served as a chaplain for the DNR, Georgia State Patrol and Georgia Bureau of Investigation.”
An ordained minister in the United Methodist Church for 40 years, Houston was also a volunteer firefighter in Plains, Georgia. His biography.
Details of the casualties are yet to be released. Two of the injured were flown by air ambulance to hospitals for treatment, Hodge said.
Among those rescued Saturday were students from Savannah State University and “safe,” the university’s Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences said on Facebook.
The Department of Natural Resources said several emergency agencies assisted by sending boats equipped with side-scan sonar and helicopters for search and rescue operations. A reunion point was set up at an area church where people looking for family members gather, the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office said. He 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 will work tirelessly with the Critical Incident Reconstruction Team engineers and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation … to gather evidence and interview witnesses,” Robben said.
President Joe Biden spoke with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and county commissioners about the collapse. Vice President Kamala Harris said Sunday she was praying for the community.
The tragedy occurred during the Gullah-Keechee 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 Culture Day festival, said it was grateful for the support.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives and were injured,” the non-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve the Kulla-Keechi culture, land and community on Chapalo Island, said on Facebook. Position. “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 affected by this tragedy.”
The nearby town of Darien in McIntosh County said “a day of celebration has turned tragic following an accident.”
The tragedy comes after damage to the island during Cyclone Helen, including a six-day power outage. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Jill and I offer condolences to those who lost their lives, and we pray for those injured and those still missing. We are also grateful to the first responders on the scene,” Biden said Saturday.
He said the White House is in contact with state and local officials to offer any assistance that may be helpful to the community.
Sen. from Georgia. Raphael Warnock said he was “deeply saddened” by the news on Sabelo Island, saying it was “a sad end to a happy celebration”.
“We are praying for those who were sadly lost and the loved ones of those who are still missing,” he said Position Saturday night at X. “Every Georgian’s heart goes out to the Kulla Keechi community and the people of Sabelo Island tonight.”
Tendaji Bailey, a seventh-generation Gullah-Keechee descendant, was on Sapelo Island for Saturday’s well-attended celebration and told CNN after the event that rumors began to circulate that a bridge had collapsed on the island.
Bailey, 35, said he got into the car with the commissioner for the Gullah-Keechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and tried to figure out which bridge might have fallen before arriving at the dock.
“It was a very disturbing scene,” said Bailey, of South Carolina. “A lot of people were in tears, screaming, crying, people were in shock from the horror of the moment.”
Video filmed by Bailey showed several rescue workers pulling bodies from the water from the dock below the shore.
“They were retrieving 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.
“It’s horrifying to think of people going into shock after being submerged in water,” Bailey said.
“It’s an unthinkable, (unthinkable) moment, especially after such an amazing event,” he said. “It’s really, really scary.”
Sabelo Island — a barrier island off the coast of Georgia, accessible only by ferry or boat — is home to a hawk hammock community of a few dozen people. Full-time residents, According to Explore Georgia. Many of them are called Gullah-Keechi people, who were brought to the island in 1802 from enslaved Africans and worked on coastal plantations.
Hogg Hammock’s Gullah-Geechee community members are close-knit, “bound by family, bound by history and bound by struggle,” Roger Lotson of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners told the AP. His district includes Sabelo Island.
“Everybody’s family, everybody knows each other,” Lotson said. “In any tragedy, especially one like this, they are all one. They are all united. They all feel the same pain and the same pain.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, Hog’s Hammock is believed by historians to be one of the last remaining Gullah-Keechee communities on the Georgia Sea Islands.
A very tight-knit community that retains their West African cultural traditions and languages, passing them down from one generation to the next. Activities include the ancient African art of basket making, keeping the ring shout musical folk tradition alive, shrimp fishing and harvesting oysters, and speaking an English-based Creole language called Gulla.
On Saturday, residents and visitors to the island stayed for six hours Culture Day It honors Gullah-Geechee traditions with African dance performances, native food vendors, and historical tours.
Gerald J., pastor of Elm Grove Church near the crash site. Thomas told a CNN affiliate. WTOC The community came together to help after the tragedy.
“They rallied quickly and started sending things that people needed to stay, more bearable as they went through this sad time,” Thomas said.
Many island residents are elderly and on fixed incomes, Sapelo Island descendant Josiah “Jaws” Watts previously told CNN. Last year, a zoning change that raised the maximum square footage of a heated and air-conditioned home was met with concern by residents, who said it would allow wealthier people to build properties in the community and lead to higher property taxes.
Only 29 original descendants remain in the community, local historian and ninth-generation Hawk Hammock resident Maurice Bailey told CNN last year. He estimates that descendants own 63% of the property and 75% of the acreage on Sabelo Island.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Savannah State University’s Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences.
