Engineering firm will investigate fatal dock collapse on Ga

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

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

Seven people, all over the age of 70, died on Saturday after an aluminum gangway collapsed. Officials say about 40 people were standing on the embankment when it ruptured, and about 20 fell into the water, with many of them being sucked into the strong currents as they struggled for air. Eight people were taken to hospital, at least six they were seriously injured.

LEGAL ACTION?

• Victims injured in the dock collapse retained civil rights attorneys Bakari Sellers and Mario Pacella, both of the Strom law firm. Lawyers say they will conduct their own investigation to determine what caused the fall and who is responsible. “It’s absolutely terrifying,” Sellers said. “Unfortunately, this is all too common as minority communities like these are ignored and neglected until that neglect leads to tragedy. It’s predictable. This can be prevented. But that will never change until someone is held accountable.”

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

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

The department oversees dock operations on the island, which is accessible only by boat and has no medical facility. There were seven hundred people visiting Hogg Hummock on Saturday for the annual Gullah-Geechee Cultural Day festival celebrating the community’s history. That day, the island was bustling with life despite ongoing gentrification and tax increases. Many Gullah-Geechee members left the island for places with greater opportunities and infrastructure.

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents relatives of the three deceased, said Tuesday that he doesn’t trust the state to investigate the collapse. He called on the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.

According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the 80-foot-long pier should accommodate 320 people. The dock was rebuilt in 2021 after residents sued Georgia officials over federal disability accessibility standards on ferries and docks.

WHO DIED?

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

Hogg Hummock residents also argued in a 2021 lawsuit that McIntosh County failed to provide sufficient emergency resources on the island. In settling accounts with the communityMcIntosh agreed to partially improve emergency services by building a helipad. Residents claim that the helipad has not been built yet. Instead, the helicopter evacuating people after the collapse landed in an overgrown field.

Members of the Gullah-Geechee community on Sapelo Island and beyond continue to mourn. Residents of Jacksonville, Florida gathered for, among others: prayer vigil to support grieving families on Thursday at the local African Methodist Episcopal Church along with local pastors and politicians. Churchgoers paid their respects to the dead, whom some now call the “Sapelo Seven.”

The crisis took place on an island isolated from the mainland

The largely pristine 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 make the seven-mile trip on ferries operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference last Sunday that about 700 guests showed up for a Cultural Day organized by residents of Hogg Hummock, a small enclave founded after the Civil War by slaves who worked on Thomas Spalding’s island plantation.

Rabon said his agency had 40 employees on the island during one of its busiest days of the year. Later, the U.S. Coast Guard, local sheriff and fire departments joined the search and rescue operation using boats and helicopters. However, Rabon praised civilian witnesses for their efforts immediately after the collapse sent about 20 people into the water.

“Their quick response and action saved an additional life,” Rabon said.

The video shows the crazy scene right after the collapse

Eyewitness video shows people clinging to the metal railing of the damaged walkway and hanging at a sharp angle into the water. Some at the bottom are partially submerged, while those closer to the top stretch out their arms, trying to reach and pull them out. Others pass orange lifebuoys to those below.

At least a dozen people floating in the water can be seen moving away from the dock, dragged by a strong tidal current that threatened to pull them out to sea. Still recording on his phone, White runs into the waterfront parking lot and shouts for others to come help.

“Who can help? Who can swim? Please help! Help! Help!” he shouts. “The bridge has fallen! It’s fallen! Please help! People are in the water!”

News of the unfolding disaster soon spread to the festival grounds, where Hogg Hummock residents mingled with visitors, sampling island foods such as smoked mullet and gumbo, and participating in fishing net and quilt-making demonstrations.

The island’s inhabitants fell into the water to save their lives

Island resident Jazz Watts said he arrived at the dock to find lifeguards pulling people from the water and administering first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. JR Grovner loaded the injured woman into a pickup truck and drove her to an overgrown field full of holes dug by wild pigs used for the helicopter evacuation.

Reginald Hall said he threw himself into the water and passed the small child to him to pass to others, forming a human chain 55 meters from the shore. The bodies fished out of the water were covered with blankets.

“It was chaotic. It was terrible,” said Hall, who has a home on the island.

Rabon said an accident reconstruction team, working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is working to determine the cause of the “catastrophic failure” at the state-owned dock, which was rebuilt in 2021. The Department of Natural Resources said it was recently inspected. in December.

Tragedy strikes a shrinking community of people descended from slaves

Hogg Hummock is part of a dwindling group of small southern communities descended from enslaved island populations known as Gullah or Geechee in Georgia. Scholars say the inhabitants retain much of their African heritage – including unique dialect and skills such as net fishing and basket weaving – due to their separation from the mainland.

Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

But the community’s population has been declining for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders to build vacation homes. Last year, county commissioners approved zoning changes that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock. This has raised concerns among residents that larger homes could result in tax increases, forcing them to sell land their families have owned for generations.

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

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

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

Watts said the private healthcare provider planned to open the clinic in a county-owned building long used as a community center. However, the deal fell through when commissioners decided to lease the space for a restaurant.

“It’s clear that local officials are not doing everything they should be doing,” Watts said. “Those things would definitely help because every second counts.”

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

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