Victims identified after fatal dock collapse in Georgia that killed seven

Georgia authorities have named the seven people who were killed on Saturday afternoon after a dock gangway they were on collapsed into the waters off the states Atlantic seacoast on Sapelo Island.

Crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the islands tiny Gullah-Geechee community of black slave descendants and were awaiting a ferry to return back to the mainland when the tragedy occurred.

Among the dead was 77-year-old Charles Houston Jr., of Darien, a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources - the same agency investigating what caused the gangways catastrophic failure.

The other victims were named as Carlotta McIntosh, 93, Isaiah Thomas, 79, Jacqueline Crews Carter, 75, Cynthia Gibbs, 74, all of Jacksonville, Florida and William Johnson Jr., 73, and Queen Welch, 76, both from Atlanta.

Charles Houston Jr., 77, of Darien, a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources was killed during the tragedy on Saturday night

A portion of the gangway which collapsed Saturday afternoon remains visible on Sapelo Island in McIntosh county, Georgia on Sunday

Three other people remain hospitalized in critical condition following the gangways collapse.

It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but well see what the investigation unfolds, GDNR Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a Sunday news conference.

The gangway, installed in 2021, gave way as an estimated 700 people visited largely unspoiled Sapelo Island, about 60 miles  south of Savannah and 7 miles offshore. No bridge connects the island to the mainland. 

People traveled there Saturday for the annual fall Cultural Day event spotlighting 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.

Rabon said upwards of 40 people were on the gangway when at least 20 fell into the water. 

The gangway, installed in 2021, gave way as an estimated 700 people visited largely unspoiled Sapelo Island

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon addressed the media at the Sapelo island visitors center, alongside Georgia State Rep. Buddy DeLoach, Rep. Al Williams, Ga House Speaker Jon Burns and McIntosh Sheriffs Stephen Jesup  on Sunday

The gangway, installed in 2021, connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore

Installed in 2021, the gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.

Rabon said his agency had extra staff working, 40 people total, on Saturday because of crowds. 

After the collapse, the U.S. Coast Guard and local sheriffs and fire departments rushed to the island to help, using boats and helicopters.

Ed Grovner was working as senior mate on one of the ferries taking people between the island and the mainland. 

He described how the ferry pulled up to the dock a short time after the collapse and crew members saw orange lifejackets bobbing in the water that had been tossed in to help people who had fallen. 

Grovner said he and other crew members tried to help a man and a woman, with someone administering CPR, but they were already dead.

I couldnt sleep last night, Grovner said. My wife said I was sleeping, I was hollering in my sleep, saying, "Im going to save you. Im going to save you. Im going to get you."

He sighed deeply saying: I wish I couldve did more.

Small coastal communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South - known as Gullah  or Geechee in Georgia - are scattered from North Carolina to Florida, including on Sapelo Island. 

Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills such as basket weaving.

Part of the collapsed gangway can be seen from offshore

Festival goers who attended a Gullah Geechee festival on Sapelo Island leave the Elm Grove Church where they were taken to reunite with loved ones on Sapelo Island

A hearse heads to Meridian Dock in McIntosh county where seven people were killed after a gangway collapsed plunging them into the water, on Sapelo Island, Georgia in McIntosh county

Hogg Hummock resident Jazz Watts was at the festival site, where visitors gathered for demonstrations on crafting quilts and fishing nets while sampling island foods like smoked mullet and gumbo, when word spread of the collapse.

Watts said when he arrived, he saw emergency responders and civilians pulling people from the water and trying to administer CPR and other aid. Some of the dead were covered with blankets.

Its devastating, Watts said. When you see people being carried that are wrapped in blankets and they have died; its traumatizing to everyone.

Resident Reginald Hall was among those who charged into the water, where an outgoing tide created a strong current that was pulling victims out towards the ocean.

Hall said he was handed a two-year-old child and passed her along a chain of bystanders to shore, roughly 60 yards away. He then helped carry blanket-wrapped bodies.

It was chaotic, Hall said. It was horrible.

The dock on Sapelo Island is some distance away from the mainland and takes 20 minutes to reach the area by boat

The McIntosh County Office of the Sheriff was working on the emergency response late on Saturday night

JR Grovner loaded an injured woman into the back of a pickup truck and drove her to a field where a helicopter was evacuating victims.

The ground was thick with tall grasses that camouflaged holes dug by wild boars, he said.

Sapelo Island residents in 2015 sued McIntosh County and the state of Georgia in federal court, arguing they lacked basic services including facilities and resources for medical emergencies. 

In a 2022 settlement, county officials agreed to build a helicopter pad on the island but that still hasnt happened. 

The ferry dock was rebuilt in 2021 after Georgia officials reached a settlement in the same lawsuit, in which island residents complained that state-operated ferry boats and docks failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.

Grovner said he complained to one of the ferry captains about four months ago that the gangway to the ferry didnt seem sturdy enough, but nothing happened. Rabon said he wasnt aware of any complaints being made.

Watts said a private healthcare provider had planned to open a clinic in a county-owned building long used as Sapelo Island´s community center but the deal fell apart when county commissioners decided to lease the space to use as a restaurant.

None of the seven who died were island residents, Rabon said. And Watts, Hall and JR Grovner said they werent aware of any family members of island residents among the dead.

A staging post was set up to deal with the incident 

Multiple agencies responded to assist those in need but were hampered by the time it took to reach casualties

McIntosh County Office Sheriffs were seen back on the mainland following the incident

A team of investigators with expertise in engineering and accident reconstruction - with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation - was on the site Sunday to begin probing why the walkway failed.

In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of treasured U.S. historic sites.

But the community´s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.

Tax hikes and local zoning changes have been met with protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. 

The zoning changes approved in 2023 doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock, prompting residents fears that larger homes would lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.