Engineering firm to investigate Ga Island dock collapse

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s attorney general has brought in 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.

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

Seven people, all in their 70s, died after the aluminum footbridge collapsed on Saturday. Officials say about 40 people were on the dock when it broke and about 20 jumped into the water, many of them swept away by heavy currents as they struggled for air. Eight were taken to hospital and at least six were seriously injured.

LEGAL ACTION?

• Victims injured in the dock collapse have hired 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 crash and who is responsible. “It’s absolutely horrible,” Sellers said. “Unfortunately, it is all too common as minority communities like this are ignored and neglected until that neglect leads to tragedy. It is 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 walkway at a “secure facility,” Walter Rabon, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday, according to Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

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

The department oversees dock 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 celebrating the community’s history. That day, the island was bustling with activity despite continued gentrification and tax increases. Many Gullah-Geechee members left the island for places with more opportunities and infrastructure.

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

The 80-foot walkway was supposed to be able to carry 320 people, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The dock was rebuilt in 2021 after residents sued Georgia officials over federal handicap accessibility standards on ferries and docks.

WHO DIED?

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

Hogg Hummock residents also claimed in the 2021 lawsuit that McIntosh County did not provide enough emergency resources to the island. One settlement with the communityMcIntosh agreed to improve emergency services, in part, by building a helicopter landing pad. Residents say the launch pad has not been built yet. A helicopter evacuating people after the crash landed instead in a field full of vegetation.

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

The crisis unfolded on an island isolated from the mainland

The largely unspoiled Sapelo Island, 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 ferries operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to make the 7-mile trip.

Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon told a news conference last Sunday that about 700 visitors turned out for the Cultural Day event hosted by residents of Hogg Hummock, a small enclave founded after the Civil War by slaves who had worked the island plantation Thomas Spalding.

Rabon said his agency had 40 staff working on the island on one of the busiest days of the year. The U.S. Coast Guard and local sheriff’s and fire departments later joined search and rescue efforts with boats and helicopters. But Rabon praised bystanders for their efforts immediately after the collapse sent about 20 people into the water.

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

The video shows a frantic scene immediately after the crash

Eyewitness video shows people clinging to the metal railing of the broken footbridge, dangling at a steep angle into the water. Some holding on to the bottom are partially submerged, while those closest to the top reach out and try to pull them up. Others give orange lifesavers to those at the bottom.

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

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

Word 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 demonstrated fishing net making and the duvets.

Islanders rushed into the water, fighting to save lives

Island resident Jazz Watts said he arrived at the dock to find lifeguards pulling people out of 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 feral pigs, used for helicopter evacuation.

Reginald Hall said he entered the water and was given a small child to wade with others forming a human chain 60 yards (55 meters) to shore. The bodies taken out of 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, is working to determine what caused a “catastrophic failure” at the state-run dock, which was rebuilt in 2021. The Department of Natural Resources has declared last inspected. in December.

Tragedy strikes a dwindling community of people descended from slaves

Hogg Hummock is among a dwindling group of small southern communities descended from the enslaved island populations known as the Gullah or Geechee in Georgia. Researchers say residents retain much of their African heritage — including a unique dialect and skills such as net fishing and basket weaving — because of their separation from the continent.

Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was listed 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 foreigners for vacation homes. Last year, county commissioners approved zoning changes that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock. That has sparked fears among residents that bigger homes could spur tax hikes that could force them to sell land their families have owned for generations.

Residents cited the island’s lack of emergency resources in a previous lawsuit

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

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

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

“It’s obvious that local officials are not doing everything they need to do,” Watts said. “These things would absolutely help because every second counts.”

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

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