SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — 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!”
Word of the unfolding disaster soon reached the festival site where Hogg Hummock residents mingled with visitors as they sampled island foods like smoked mullet and gumbo and took in demonstrations on crafting fishing nets and quilts.
Island residents rushed into the water, scrambling to save lives
Island resident Jazz Watts said he arrived at the dock to find rescuers pulling people from the water and trying to administer CPR and first aid. JR Grovner loaded an injured woman into a pickup truck and drove her to an overgrown field pocked with holes dug by wild hogs being used for helicopter evacuations.
Reginald Hall said he charged into the water and was handed a young child to pass along to others forming a human chain 60 yards (55 meters) to the shore. Bodies pulled from the water were covered with blankets.
“It was chaotic. It was horrible,” said Hall, who has a home on the island.
Rabon said an accident reconstruction team, working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, was working to determine what caused a “catastrophic failure” at the state-operated dock, which had been rebuilt in 2021. The Department of Natural Resources said it was last inspected in December.
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.
Residents cited the island’s lack of emergency resources in a prior lawsuit
Sapelo Island residents sued McIntosh County and the state of Georgia in federal court in 2015, arguing they lacked basic services including resources for handling medical emergencies.
State officials rebuilt the ferry dock in 2021 as part of a legal settlement. Residents reached a settlement the following year with McIntosh County, which agreed to build a helicopter pad on the island for emergency evacuations. Grovner, Hall and Watts all said that still hasn’t happened.
Watts said that a private healthcare provider had planned to open a clinic in a county-owned building long used as a community center. But the deal fell through when commissioners opted to lease the space for a restaurant.
“It’s obvious that the local officials aren’t doing everything they need to be doing,” Watts said. “Those things would have absolutely helped because every second matters.”
Patrick Zoucks, the county manager, did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.
