“Catastrophic failure” caused a gangway to collapse into the water at a ferry dock on Sapelo Island Saturday afternoon, leading to seven deaths, state officials said Sunday.
The incident occurred as visitors left the island’s annual Cultural Day, which celebrates the community’s Gullah Geechee history.
As of late Saturday morning, three victims remained hospitalized in critical condition, said Walter Rabon, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the ferries and dock.
About 700 people traveled to and from the island Saturday, about seven-times the normal traffic, Rabon said. When asked if heavy use of the gangway could have contributed to the collapse, the commissioner replied that “it’s possible that extra stress” was a factor.
“Look, I’m sure anything that’s manmade has limits,” he added. “I don’t know what that is (with the gangway). I’m told that it should have carried the capacity that was there (Saturday).”
The dock and gangway were constructed in 2021, Rabon said. DNR’s Critical Incident Reconstruction Team and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating the incident.
A DNR chaplain was among those who died, Rabon said.
“I want to thank those who were on the scene as the tragedy unfolded and jumped into action,” Rabon said. “Their quick response and action saved additional lives yesterday afternoon.”
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‘The whole world around me fell’
The Saltwater Geechee of Sapelo Island are a part of the Gullah Geechee community, direct descendants of West Africans brought over for their expertise in rice and indigo cultivation during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The island is home to about 70 full-time residents of the Hog Hammock community, many of them descendants of people enslaved at Sapelo plantations. No residents of the island were among the fatalities, Rabon said.
An estimated 20 people fell into the water, and as many as 40 could have been on the gangway at the time of the failure, Rabon reported.
One of those people was Teake Zuidema, a photographer from Savannah who’d gone to capture images of the event Saturday, and was preparing to board the ferry for the trip back to the mainland.
“I think I took about three steps, and then all of a sudden, the whole world around me fell, and people were screaming and yelling,” Zuidema said in a phone interview Sunday.
Those in the water ranged in age from young to elderly, he added.
Zuidema was able to use a railing to pull himself up, “but there were many people who tried to climb up that gangway, and they fell because it was so slippery,” he said. “And as they fell, they pulled other people with them back into the water. So it was really pandemonium. It was really horrific.”
As Zuidema clung to the rail, he watched as people who’d fallen into the water were swept away by the current.
“I looked around and I saw on the beach people were giving CPR to people that were lying there unconscious,” he added. “And then I realized that I saw people dying in front of my eyes.”
President Joe Biden issued a statement saying he and first lady Jill Biden were heartbroken to hear the news. He said he was monitoring the situation and was prepared to provide any assistance that would be helpful to the community.
“What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation,” the statement said. “Jill and I mourn those who lost their lives, and we pray for the injured and anyone still missing.”
“Marty, the girls, and I are heartbroken by today’s tragedy on Sapelo Island,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement issued on Saturday afternoon. “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.”
‘Why did that happen?’
Hermina Glass-Hill, executive director of the Susie King Taylor Women’s Institute and Ecology Center in Midway, said her shuttle bus was behind the one that delivered passengers who were on the gangway when it collapsed.
“We saw people wrapped in insulated bags to keep them warm, and people being carried by first responders and local people to lift their bodies,” she recalled in a phone interview Sunday morning. “When I finally reached the dock, people were walking around like in the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow,” because they just couldn’t believe what had happened.”
As she took in the scene, Glass-Hill said her first thoughts were about how a celebration of Gullah Geechee culture, food and music ended instantly in tragedy.
“But now that I’ve had some time to kind of begin processing it, I’m thinking, ‘Why did that happen? Why did that gangway collapse? Who is responsible for ensuring that kind of infrastructure is secure and sustainable on that island?’” she said. “(Sapelo) is already wrought with enough social and political issues, but to have something like that happen on such a wonderful day was horrible.”
When she reached the mainland, Glass-Hill said she encountered a woman and her daughters who’d she’d met earlier in the day. The daughters had come home to cast early ballots in the Nov. 5 election.
“One of the daughters had seen a person drown, and she kept screaming, ‘If I could have saved them! If I could have saved them! If I could have saved them!’” Glass-Hill recalled, her own voice choked with emotion. “You know, they were supposed to go back to college (Monday), and now they have survivor’s remorse.”
‘Like rubbing salt into a wound’
Jamie Arkins of Savannah made her first visit to Sapelo Saturday for the festival.
“I plopped my chair in the middle of it and just took in the sights and the sounds, the smells, the conversations,” she said Sunday. “No phones were out. Nobody was on there on the internet. They were just enjoying each other’s company, enjoying their heritage.”
Arkins and a friend left for the mainland on a ferry at about 3 p.m., about 50 minutes before the collapse.
“I kept thinking, ‘There sure, a lot of people still here. How are they going to all get on that last round of fairies?’” she recalled. “That’s what stuck in my mind.”
Arkins said the other image that stuck with her was the movement of the water at the dock.
“The current there on the gangway, coming down the gangway to get onto the floating dock and on the ferry, was really swift moving,” she explained. “I noticed that when we were heading over to the island that morning and we were leaving in the afternoon.”
Arkins learned of the incident after returning to Savannah, and the contrast between what she experienced on the island earlier in the day and what she felt now was jarring.
“It was the most perfect day – checking off a bucket list item, experiencing who this community is, to understand who they are, to try to help (because) they’re at risk, and then to learn if this was like rubbing salt into a wound,” she said.
John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213 or jdeem@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia officials probe deadly Sapelo Island dock accident
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