7 dead after ‘structural failure’ caused ferry dock gangway collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island

Video above: Authorities give an update on the Sapelo Island gangway collapse on Saturday, Oct. 19

MCINTOSH COUNTY, Ga. ( WSAV ) — Seven people are dead and multiple others injured after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island on Saturday.

The gangway at the Marsh Landing Dock collapsed at around 4:30 p.m., sending at least 20 people into the water. “Upwards of 40 people” had been on the gangway when it collapsed, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference Sunday.

Seven people died, authorities said. As of Sunday morning, three people remain hospitalized in critical condition. There are no missing victims, authorities believe.

“It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds,” Rabon said Sunday. None of those killed were residents of the island.

“There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, Natural Resources spokesperson Tyler Jones said after the incident. “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”

Among the dead was a chaplain for the state agency, Jones said. Authorities did not immediately release any additional details about the victims on Sunday.

In a statement following the incident, President Joe Biden said, “We are heartbroken to learn about the ferry dock walkway collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island. What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation. 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. My team is in touch with state and local officials, and we stand ready to provide any and all assistance that would be helpful to the community.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he and his family were “heartbroken by today’s tragedy on Sapelo Island.”

“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,” Kemp said on the social platform X.

Sapelo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat.

The gangway, installed in 2021, connects an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore. The ferry dock was rebuilt after Georgia officials in October 2020 settled a federal lawsuit by Hogg Hummock residents who complained the state-operated ferry boats and docks they rely upon to travel between Sapelo Island the mainland failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

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,” said Roger Lotson, the only Black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners. 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.”

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. Scholars say 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.

In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places , the official list of the United States’ treasured historic sites.

But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.

Tax increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh County have been 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 say they fear larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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