The island’s small Gullah-Geechee community of descendants of Black slaves had assembled in large numbers for an autumn feast.
At least 20 people fell into the Atlantic waters off the coast of the state after the gangway collapsed in 2021 while it was packed with people waiting for a ferry boat.
Three of the eight patients who were admitted to the hospital are still in critical condition.
“It is a structural failure,” stated Walter Rabon, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. An aluminum gangway like that should require relatively little upkeep, but we’ll have to wait and see how the investigation turns out.
When the gangway collapsed, he continued, “upwards of 40 people” were on it.
Following a search of the ocean by US Coast Guard personnel and others, an investigative team arrived on the scene early on Sunday to start looking into the malfunctioning footbridge.
“The thing just collapsed,” said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for Natural Resources, adding that there had been “no collision” with a boat or anything else. We have no idea why.
