Authorities said at least seven people were killed Saturday when part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia's Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island's tiny Gullah Geechee community of Black slave descendants. Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six of them with critical injuries, said Tyler Jones, a spokesperson for Natural Resources, the state agency that operates the dock and ferry boats, per the AP. Rescuers were continuing to search for more people in the water.
A gangway at the dock collapsed, sending people plunging into the water, Jones said. A team of engineers and construction specialists planned to be on site early Sunday to begin investigating why the walkway failed, he said. "There was no collision" with a boat or anything else, Jones said. "The thing just collapsed. We don't know why." At least 20 people were on the gangway when it collapsed, he said. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.
Sapelo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat. The collapse happened as island residents, family members, and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event spotlighting the island's tiny community of Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen Black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the Civil War by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.
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Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South—known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia—are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.
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