At least 7 dead after ferry dock gangway collapses on Georgia’s Sapelo Island

SAPELO ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — At least seven people were killed Saturday after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, according to a spokesperson for the state agency that operates it.

Multiple people were taken to hospitals, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others were searching the water for any other survivors, said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Jones said a gangway at the dock collapsed and sent people plunging into the water. It happened as crowds gathered on the island for a celebration of its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.

Sapleo Island is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Savannah and is reachable from the mainland by boat.

The Associated Press