Eyewitness video captures frantic life-saving efforts after deadly dock walkway collapse – Winston-Salem Journal

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The metal gangway where dozens of people waited to board a ferry made a loud, creaking sound before breaking in half amid panicked screams from people sent diving into the water. Some clung desperately to the railing, while others began to float away with the tidal current.

“There was no time for anyone to get off,” said Icy White, who was watching from about 30 feet away on the Sapelo Island ferry dock. “It took seconds.”

White’s family was among hundreds who visited the isolated Georgia barrier island Saturday for a fall festival highlighting the history and culture of its small Gullah-Geechee community of descendants of black slaves. The celebration turned to tragedy when the walkway collapsed, sending seven visitors to their deaths.

White, of Atlanta, recorded video of the immediate aftermath on his cell phone and shared it with The Associated Press. It shows tourists and islanders springing into action to rescue imperiled strangers and aid the injured in a remote location, with few trained first-aiders initially on site.

“There was no 911 there,” said Darrell Jenkins, White’s cousin. “We were EMS.”

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 (11-kilometer) trip.

Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference Sunday that approximately 700 visitors turned out for the Culture Day event organized by residents of Hog Hummock, a small enclave founded after the Civil War by slaves who worked on the island plantation of Thomas Spalding.

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

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

White’s video shows people clinging to metal railings on the broken walkway, hanging at a steep angle into the water. Some who are holding on to the bottom are partially submerged, while those who are closer to the top are reaching out their arms, trying to reach them and pull them up. Others pass orange rescue cartridges to those at the bottom.

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

“Who can help? Who can swim? Please help! help! Help!” she shouts. “The bridge has fallen! It fell! please help! People are in the water!”

Another video shows volunteers trying to comfort a crying woman with a broken leg at the water’s edge. A few feet away, a man wearing latex gloves is kneeling and performing chest compressions on someone sprawled on the ground, a muddy mixture of rocks and shells.

Other footage shows volunteers using a blanket to make a makeshift stretcher for an injured woman, then carrying her to an evacuation boat.

The seven killed were elderly, ranging in age from 73 to 93, according to McIntosh County Coroner Melvin Amerson.

Officials said none of them live on the island, and Hogg Hummock resident Reginald Hall said none of them appeared to be family members of the islanders.

Among them is Charles L. Houston, 77, of nearby Darien, a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Also killed were William Johnson Jr., 73, and Queen Welch, 76, both of Atlanta. The other four were from Jacksonville, Fla.: Crews Carter, 75; Cynthia Gibbs, 74; Carlotta Mackintosh, 93; Isaiah Thomas, 79

The broken walkway was removed from the dock and taken to what the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on Monday called a “secured facility.”

An investigative team with expertise in accident reconstruction and engineering has been assigned to determine what caused the collapse, which Rabon, the natural resources commissioner, called Sunday a “catastrophic failure.”

Rabon’s agency operates the Sapelo Island ferries and dock, which was restored in 2021. The agency said the passage was last inspected in December 2023, with no concerns found.

Rabon told reporters that about 40 people were standing on the walkway waiting to board a ferry when it collapsed in the middle.

Hogg Hummock is among a declining cluster of small southern communities descended from enslaved island populations known as the Gullah or Geechee in Georgia. Scientists say residents retain much of their African heritage – including a unique dialect and skills such as net fishing and basket weaving – due to 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 declining for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders for vacation homes. Last year, county commissioners approved zoning changes that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock. That has raised concerns among residents that larger homes could spur tax hikes that could force them to sell land their families have owned for generations.

Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi.