 Dock tragedy is latest chapter in Gullah Geechee community’s long struggleBy Ray
Sanchez, CNN
CNN
— For the young daughters of
Michael and Kimberly Wood, it was their first time at the annual festival
celebrating the culture of the Gullah Geechee community on Georgia’s remote
Sapelo Island, the birthplace of their maternal grandmother and other descendants
of enslaved Africans. After a day of storytelling,
poetry, religious dance and hope-filled spirituals a week ago Saturday, the
Woods, other family members and dozens of festival goers waited on a floating
dock and adjoining gangway for the scenic ferry ride to the mainland across
marshy Doboy Sound. A loud cracking sound and a
sudden shifting of the gangway were the only warning before the relatively
new dockside aluminum walkway plunged into the water
about 60 miles south of Savannah. The collapse killed seven people, injured
several others and gave his two girls what Michael Wood said was their first
glimpse of the Gullah Geechee community’s longtime heartache and resilience. “It’s that fight to survive,” said Wood, a quality
assurance engineer who slid down the collapsed gangway, snatched his
74-year-old mother out of the water and handed her to a stranger on the dock. Wood said he unsuccessfully attempted to reach his
8-year-old daughter Hailey, who was eventually rescued by the boyfriend of a
relative as she clung to part of the dock. His wife Kimberly, clinging to
their 2-year-old daughter Riley and using a book bag as a flotation device,
drifted away in the strong current before another stranger pulled them safely
to shore. The October 19 tragedy is the latest chapter in the
struggles of one of the last surviving Gullah Geechee communities in the
Georgia Sea Islands. These descendants of Africans who were enslaved on
coastal plantations in the Southeast have fought to preserve their ways of
life amid what they describe as a long-standing policy of neglect by state
and county officials. “The call that the community has
to its preservation is strong and runs deep, even risking their lives to save
a life,” said Joyce White, a professor and interim director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage
Center at Georgia Southern University. “The risk of life, or death
in this instance, is for future survival.” Four women and three men, all of
them older than 70, were killed in the collapse, which the head of the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources said appears to have been caused by a
“catastrophic failure of the gangway.” An engineering and design firm will
conduct an independent investigation in the cause, the DNR said Friday. The victims were identified as Jacqueline Crews
Carter, 75; Cynthia Gibbs, 74; William Johnson Jr., 73; Carlotta
McIntosh, 93; Isaiah Thomas, 79; Queen Welch, 76; and Charles L. Houston, 77.
They had traveled to the festival from Jacksonville, Florida, Atlanta and
Darien, Georgia. Gangway inspected in 2022 after a
‘loud noise’ Those who died were among 700
visitors to the island for the annual Cultural Day celebration,
which residents said used to attract as many as 2,000 people. Only 29
original descendants remain in the small hamlet known as Hogg Hummock or Hog
Hammock, where their enslaved ancestors settled after being forcibly brought
there in 1802. The state now owns most of the island. As festival goers waited to board
a ferry returning to the mainland, the gangway came down. At least 20 people
plunged into the Duplin River, officials said. There were as many as 40
people on the walkway at the time. The ferry dock was rebuilt in
2021 after a group of Gullah Geechee residents reached multimillion-dollar
settlement with the state over what they claimed in a 2019 lawsuit were soaring
property taxes and inferior treatment compared to the residents on the
mainland. In 2015 federal civil rights claims, residents said they were
paying high property taxes and receiving inadequate services
including “water, emergency medical, fire, road
maintenance, trash, and accessible ferry services to members of the
community.” The lawsuit against the state was settled in 2020 and
the case against the county was settled two years later. The state settlement included
the construction of the dock and “new aluminum gangways” as well as improved
ferry service. “There
should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that,”
DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon told reporters last Sunday, adding there were
“almost daily” visual inspections of the structure.
The
gangway passed four safety inspections since 2022, DNR said in a statement on
Thursday. A subcontractor inspected the structure in May 2022, one day after
the agency was “made aware of a loud noise that had been heard by a group on
the gangway,” according to the statement. The May 2022 inspection and a follow-up later that year in
December both found “no structural concerns with the gangway,” said the
agency, which owns and runs the docks and ferries. Two additional inspections
were conducted after recent hurricanes Helene and Milton and “no concerns”
were identified, the statement said. The cause of the collapse is also being looked at by the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump – who is
representing relatives of some victims – as well as a number of island
residents have called for a federal probe. ‘See where their grandmother grew
up’ A week ago Saturday, Michael and Kimberly Wood, their two
daughters, his mother Susie, and several other family members arrived on
Sapelo from their homes throughout the state. The barrier island, about 7
miles off the coast of Georgia, is accessible only by boat or ferry.……………….. |
 ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's attorney
general 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.Georgia's 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 probe will continue as the firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates conducts its own. Seven people, all of them over 70, died after the aluminum gangway collapsed Saturday. Officials say around 40 people were standing on the dock when it snapped and about 20 plunged into the water, many of them sucked into heavy currents as they struggled for air. Eight were taken to the hospital, and at least six were critically injured. Two of the victims are still hospitalized as of Thursday, authorities said. The state investigation could take a long time as the agencies interview witnesses and collect other evidence, including an inspection of the gangway at a “secure facility,” Walter Rabon, the Commissioner of Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, said Tuesday, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Rabon said the gangway was inspected by Georgia-based Crescent Equipment Co. less than a year ago and by the Department of Natural Resources after the recent hurricanes Helene and Milton. The department oversees the dock's operations on the island, which is only reachable by boat and has no medical facilities. Seven hundred people were visiting Hogg Hummock on Saturday for the Gullah-Geechee people’s annual Cultural Day festival celebrating the community’s history. That day, the island buzzed with activity despite ongoing gentrification and tax hikes. Many Gullah-Geechee members have left the island for places with more opportunities and infrastructure. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing relatives of three of the dead, said Tuesday that he doesn't trust the state to investigate the collapse. He called for the Department of Justice to investigate. The 80-foot (24-meter) gangway should have been 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 accessibility standards for people with disabilities on ferries and docks. Hogg Hummock residents also argued in the 2021 lawsuit that McIntosh County didn’t provide enough emergency resources on the island. In a settlement with the community, McIntosh agreed to improve emergency services in part by building a helicopter landing pad. Residents say the launching pad has yet to be built. A helicopter evacuating people after the collapse instead landed in an overgrown field. Members of the Gullah-Geechee community on and off Sapelo Island are still in mourning. Residents in Jacksonville, Florida, gathered for a prayer vigil to support grieving families Thursday at a local African Methodist Episcopal church with local pastors and politicians. Churchgoers honored those who died, who some now refer to as the “Sapelo Seven.” |
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