Seven killed as ferry dock collapses on US Atlantic coast off Georgia

A team of engineers and construction specialists will begin an investigation into why the gangway collapsed.

At least seven people were killed after part of a ferry dock collapsed off the coast of the US state of Georgia, the authorities say, where crowds had gathered for an autumn celebration.

The incident on Saturday caused at least 20 people to plunge into the Atlantic Ocean, with US Coast Guard ships searching for missing people into the night.

The accident took place during a celebration of Sapelo Island’s small Gullah Geechee community who are the descendants of African slaves.

Island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, home to a few dozen Black residents.

The dock was crowded with people waiting for a ferry, said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock and ferry boats that transport people between the island and the mainland.

Sapelo Island is about 97km (60 miles) south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat.

“We and multiple agencies are searching for survivors,” Jones said, adding that eight people were taken to hospitals, with at least six of them with critical injuries.

A team of engineers and construction specialists was scheduled to be at the site on Sunday to begin investigating why the walkway failed, the official said.

“There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, Jones said. “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”

United States President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered their condolences and said they had told local officials they would provide federal support if needed.

“What should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation,” Biden said in a statement. “We are also grateful to the first responders at the scene.”

Harris, the Democratic nominee in presidential elections next month who was campaigning in Georgia’s state capital Atlanta, said she was “praying for all those who were killed or injured … as well as their family members and loved ones”.

The community affected, the people known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia, are believed to have retained their African heritage because of their isolation, according to experts. The small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the south are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida.

Hogg Hummock’s slave descendants are extremely close, having been “bonded by family, bonded by history and bonded by struggle”, said Roger Lotson, the only Black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners. His district includes Sapelo Island.

“Everyone is family, and everyone knows each other,” Lotson said. “In any tragedy, especially like this, they are all one. They’re all united. They all feel the same pain and the same hurt.”