Seven people were killed when part of a ferry dock collapsed on a remote island nature reserve, and numerous others injured.
About 20 people were on a gangway to an outer dock where passengers board the ferry, when it crashed into the water off Sapelo Island in Georgia.
Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the ferry, said it was not yet known how the gangway collapsed.
Seven people have died after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Sapelo Island in Georgia (pictured before its collapse)
One of the dead was a chaplain for the GDNR, Jones said.
The dock was under pressure from crowds during Cultural Day, a celebration among the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of black slave descendants,
Sapleo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah and is reachable from the mainland by boat.
The US Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and others are searching for survivors.
Rescue crews are using boats equipped with side-scan sonar, and helicopters, to scour the Duplin River and surrounding waters.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he was heartbroken by the loss of life.
‘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,’ he said.
The sun rises over Sapelo Island, Georgia, a Gullah-Geechee community
Cultural Day is an annual fall event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, which is home to a few dozen black residents.
The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.
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 said 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.
More to come.
