SAVANNAH, Ga. — At least seven people were killed on Saturday after part of a ferry port on Georgia’s Sapelo island collapsed, authorities said.
Several people were taken to hospitals and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, McIntosh County Fire Department, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others searched the water, said spokesman Tyler Jones of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which manages the water. dock.
Jones said a gangplank at the wharf collapsed, throwing people into the water. It happened as crowds gathered on the island for a celebration of the small Gullah-Geechee community of black slave descendants.
“Seven fatalities have been confirmed,” Jones said. “Several people have been transported to area hospitals, and we continue to search the water for individuals.”
Jones said he did not know what caused the gangway to collapse, but officials believe at least 20 people were on it at the time. The gangway connected an outside dock where people boarded the ferry to another dock on land.
A Georgia Department of Natural Resources chaplain was among those killed, Jones said.
Sapelo Island is located about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Savannah and can be reached by boat from the mainland.
Cultural Day is an annual fall event that spotlights the island’s small community of Hogg Hummock, home to several dozen black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded by former slaves from Thomas Spalding’s cotton plantation.
Small communities are descended from enslaved island populations in the south known as Gullahor Geechee in Georgia – are distributed along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say that separation from the mainland allowed residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as casting net fishing and basket weaving.