Georgia authorities said Sunday they were investigating the “catastrophic failure” of a dock that collapsed and killed seven people on Sapelo Island, where crowds gathered to celebrate fall by the island’s small Gullah Geechee community of descendants of black slaves.

“It’s a structural failure. There should be very little maintenance on an aluminum driveway like this, but we’ll see what the investigation reveals,” Walter Rabon, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, said at a news conference.

The walkway will be installed in 2021, authorities said.

Rabon said three people remained in hospital in critical condition as a result of the collapse that occurred on Saturday.

Rabon said “over 40 people” were on the boardwalk when the “catastrophic failure” occurred, and at least 20 people fell into the water. The boardwalk connects an outside pier where people take the ferry to another pier on the beach.

Rabon said that none of the seven dead were residents of the island. Eight people were taken to hospitals, and at least six of them were initially reported Saturday with serious injuries.

The ferry dock was rebuilt after Georgia officials in October 2020 settled a federal lawsuit brought by residents of the small community of Hog Homock, who complained that the state-run ferry boats and docks they rely on to travel between Sapelo Island and the mainland failed to meet federal accessibility standards. People with disabilities.

Get breaking national news

For news affecting Canada and around the world, sign up to get breaking news alerts delivered to you right as they happen.

The state agreed to demolish and replace the old docks while modernizing the ferry boats to accommodate people who use wheelchairs and are hard of hearing. The state also paid a cash settlement of $750,000.

Crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, McIntosh County Fire Department, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others searched the waters, according to Natural Resources spokesman Tyler Jones. The agency operates the pier and ferry boats that transport people between the island and the mainland.

A team of engineers and construction specialists was on site early Sunday to begin investigating the cause of the walkway’s failure, Jones said.

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

Helicopters and boats equipped with side-scan sonar were used in the search, according to a Department of Natural Resources statement.

Among those killed was a government agency chaplain, Jones said.

President Joe Biden said federal officials stand ready to provide any assistance needed.

Sapelo Island is located about 97 kilometers south of Savannah and can be reached from the mainland by boat.

The deadly collapse occurred as island residents, their family members and tourists were gathering for Culture Day, an annual fall event that highlights Hog Homok, 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 Thomas Spalding’s cotton plantation.

Roger Lotson, the only black member of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners, said Hugh Hommock’s enslaved descendants are very close, “connected by family, by history, by struggle.” His area includes Sapelo Island.

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

Small communities descended from enslaved islanders of the South – known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia – are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Researchers say their separation from the mainland led residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as net fishing and basket weaving.

In 1996, Hough Hammock, also known as Hough Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of treasured historic sites in the United States.

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

Tax increases and zoning changes by local government in McIntosh County have been met with protests and lawsuits by residents and landowners in Hog ​​Homock. They have been fighting over 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 the larger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have owned for generations.

& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press