SAPELO ISLAND, Ga. — The Georgia Senate Urban Affairs Committee is holding a hearing Thursday afternoon on the Sapelo Island gangway collapse that left seven people dead earlier this month.
A press conference was held at the State Capitol at 12:30 p.m., where state leaders and attorneys gathered to reflect on the tragedy and encourage action in its aftermath.
State rep. Carl Gilliard somberly reflected on the victims, known as the 'Sapelo 7,' most of whom were elderly. He also advocated for the survivors of the tragedy, some of which had to witness their loved ones die in the tragedy.
"We need to do right by those citizens, by their families," Gilliard stated. From counseling to those who have gone home, the state should have participated in paying for their funerals."
An attorney representing some of the victims, Mawuli Davis of Davis Bozeman Johnson Law Firm, claimed that officials had known that the gangway needed work prior to the collapse.
"They were aware, they were on notice prior to this," Davis said. "There were people who were in positions of authority and that knew it was not stable, and they should not have been moving people across it."
When asked about whether concerns were raised to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources over the structure's stability the GA DNR directed 11Alive to statements claiming inspections were carried out in December 2022 and then again following recent storms Helene and Milton without any concerns being found.
The Senate committee hearing continued following the press conference.
"The committee will specifically examine safety procedures taken by state and county authorities and propose protocols to prevent future tragedies," a release from the office of state Sen. Donzella James, the Urban Affairs Committee chair, said.
Senate hearing
Press conference stream
More on the Sapelo Island tragedy
Georgia authorities are investigating the “catastrophic failure” of a dock gangway that collapsed and killed seven on Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the island’s tiny Gullah-Geechee community of descendants of enslaved Black people.
“It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds,” Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference.
The gangway was installed in 2021, authorities said.
Rabon said “upwards of 40 people” were on the gangway when the “catastrophic failure” occurred, and at least 20 people fell into the water. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.
None of the seven people killed were residents of the island, Rabon said. Eight people were taken to hospitals.
The ferry dock was rebuilt after Georgia officials in October 2020 settled a federal lawsuit by residents of the tiny community of Hogg Hummock, who complained the state-operated ferry boats and docks they rely upon to travel between Sapelo Island and the mainland failed to meet federal accessibility standards for people with disabilities.
The state agreed to demolish and replace outdated docks while upgrading ferry boats to accommodate people in wheelchairs and those with impaired hearing. The state also paid a cash settlement of $750,000.
“There was no collision” with a boat or anything else, Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokesman Tyler Jones said. “The thing just collapsed. We don’t know why.”
Sapelo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah, reachable from the mainland by boat.
The deadly collapse happened as island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall 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.
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.”
Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South — known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia — are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and basket-weaving.
In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States’ treasured 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 increases and zoning changes by the local government in McIntosh County have been met by protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. They have been battling for the past year to undo zoning changes approved by county commissioners in September 2023 that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock.
Residents say they fear larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land that their families have held for generations.