Engineering firm to investigate deadly dock collapse on Georgia Island

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s attorney general has hired an engineering firm to conduct an independent investigation into a fatal dock collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island during a celebration for the historic Gullah-Geechee nation, founded by black descendants of slaves.

Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, which operates the port, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have already launched a state investigation into last weekend’s incident. The state investigation will continue while the firm Wiss, Janney and Elstner Associates conducts its own investigation.

Seven people, all over 70, died on Saturday after the aluminum gangway collapsed. Officials say about 40 people were standing on the dock when it broke, throwing about 20 people into the water. Many of them were sucked into the heavy current as they struggled for air. Eight were taken to hospital, and at least six were seriously injured.

LEGAL ACTION?

• Victims injured in the wharf collapse hired civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers and Mario Pacella, both of Strom Law Firm. The lawyers say they will conduct their own investigation into what caused the collapse and who is responsible. “This is absolutely horrific,” Sellers said. “Unfortunately, it is all too common for these types of minority communities to be ignored and neglected until that neglect results in tragedy. It’s predictable. It is preventable. But it will never change until someone is held accountable.”

The state investigation could take a long time as agencies interview witnesses and collect other evidence, including an inspection of the gangway at a “secure facility,” Walter Rabon, the commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

Rabon said the gangway was inspected by Georgia-based Crescent Equipment Co. less than a year ago. and by the Department of Natural Resources following the recent Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The department oversees port operations on the island, which is only accessible by boat and has no medical facilities. There were seven hundred people visiting Hogg Hummock on Saturday for the annual Gullah-Geechee Cultural Day Festival, honoring the community’s history. That day the island was buzzing with activity, despite ongoing gentrification and tax increases. Many Gullah-Geechee members have left the island for places with more opportunities and infrastructure.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents relatives of three of the dead, said Tuesday that he does not trust the state to investigate the collapse. He called on the Ministry of Justice to investigate.

According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the 80-foot-long gangway should have been able to carry 320 people. The dock was rebuilt in 2021 after residents sued Georgia officials over federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities on ferries and docks.

WHO DIED?

• McIntosh County Coroner Melvin Amerson said the deceased have been identified as 75-year-old Jacqueline Crews Carter of Jacksonville; 74-year-old Cynthia Gibbs of Jacksonville; Charles L. Houston, 77, of Darien, Georgia; 73 year old William Johnson Jr. from Atlanta; 93-year-old Carlotta McIntosh of Jacksonville; 79-year-old Isaiah Thomas of Jacksonville; and 76-year-old Queen Welch of Atlanta.

Hogg Hummock residents also argued in the 2021 lawsuit that McIntosh County did not provide adequate emergency resources on the island. In one settlement with the communityMcIntosh agreed to improve emergency services in part by building a helicopter landing pad. Residents say the launch pad has yet to be built. A helicopter evacuating people after the collapse instead landed in an overgrown field.

Members of the Gullah-Geechee community on and around Sapelo Island are still in mourning. Residents of jacksonville, florida, gathered for a prayer vigil to support grieving families Thursday at a local African Methodist Episcopal church with local pastors and politicians. Churchgoers honored those who died, who some now call the “Sapelo Seven.”

The crisis took place on an island isolated from the mainland

The largely untouched island of Sapelo, most of which is owned by the state of Georgia, has no roads or bridges connecting it to the mainland. Residents and visitors typically rely on Georgia Department of Natural Resources ferries to make the 7-mile trip.

Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon told a news conference on Sunday that an estimated 700 visitors showed up for the Cultural Day event, organized by residents of Hogg Hummock, a small enclave founded after the Civil War by slaves living on Thomas’ island plantation Spalding had worked.

Rabon said his agency had 40 staff working on the island during one of the busiest days of the year. The U.S. Coast Guard and local sheriffs and fire departments later joined search and rescue efforts using 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 even more lives,” Rabon said.

Video shows a frantic scene immediately after the collapse

Eyewitness video shows people clinging to the metal railing of the broken aisle and dangling at a steep angle into the water. Some holding on at the bottom are partially submerged, while those closer to the top extend their hands in an attempt to reach them and pull them up. Others pass orange life jackets to those at the bottom.

At least a dozen people can be seen floating in the water, drifting away from the dock, pulled by a strong tidal current that threatened to drag them out to sea. Still answering on her phone, White runs into a dockside parking lot and yells for others to come help.

“Who can help? Who can swim? Please help! Staff! Help!” she shouts. “The bridge fell! It fell! Please help! There are people in the water!”

News of the unfolding disaster soon reached the festival site where Hogg Hummock residents mingled with visitors as they sampled island foods such as smoked mullet and gumbo and attended demonstrations on fishing net and quilt making.

Islanders rushed into the water and tried to save lives

Islander 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 full of holes dug by wild boars used for helicopter evacuations.

Reginald Hall said he rushed into the water and was handed a young child to pass to others and formed a human chain 55 meters from 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 was 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 belongs to a shrinking cluster of small southern communities descended from enslaved island populations known as Gullah or Geechee in Georgia. Scholars say the residents retain much of their African heritage – including a unique dialect and skills such as casting 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 lead to tax increases, forcing them to sell land their families have owned for generations.

Residents cited the island’s lack of emergency resources in an earlier lawsuit

Sapelo Island residents sued McIntosh County and the state of Georgia in federal court in 2015, arguing they lacked basic services, including resources to handle medical emergencies.

State officials rebuilt the ferry terminal in 2021 as part of a legal settlement. The following year, residents reached a settlement with McIntosh County, which agreed to build a helipad on the island for emergency evacuations. Grovner, Hall and Watts all said that still hasn’t happened.

Watts said a private health care provider planned to open a clinic in a county-owned building that had long been used as a community center. But the deal fell through when commissioners opted to lease the space for a restaurant.

“It’s clear that local officials are not doing everything they need to do,” Watts said. “Those things would definitely have helped, because every second counts.”

Patrick Zoucks, the district manager, did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.

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