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All victims of Georgia dock collapse accounted for after frantic search with 7 dead and 6 injured

By
Jared Downing
Published Oct. 20, 2024
Updated Oct. 20, 2024, 3:45 p.m. ET

Police have released new images of divers searching for survivors in the murky waters around the ruins of a dock gangway that collapsed on Saturday, killing seven and leaving six critically injured, authorities said.

The sheriff’s office of nearby Camden County – which sent divers to help with the rescue effort – posted photos to social media on Sunday.

By Sunday afternoon, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirmed that all victims have been accounted for.

A diver searches for victims of a dock gangway collapse on Sapelo Island, Georgia.
A diver searches for victims of a dock gangway collapse on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Camden County Sheriff's Office
Divers searching for survivors. At least 20 people were standing on the gangway when it collapsed.

At least 20 people were standing on the gangway when it collapsed. Camden County Sheriff's Office
The ruins of the gangway that connected Sapelo Island to a ferry boat dock.
The ruins of the gangway that connected Sapelo Island to a ferry boat dock.

The dead include Charles Houston, a beloved pastor and the chaplain for the Georgia DNR, his wife confirmed to The Post.

At least 20 people plunged into the water when the aluminum structure suddenly buckled and collapsed during an event honoring black slave descendants, authorities said.

Witnesses saw an elderly woman with a walker fall and at least four bodies floating away, face-down, in the low-tide current.

A rescue boat searching for "several individuals" still missing in the Sapelo Island disaster.
A rescue boat searching for “several individuals” still missing in the Sapelo Island disaster. Camden County Sheriff's Office
View from above of the Sapelo Island ferry dock with the gangway still intact.
View from above of the Sapelo Island ferry dock with the gangway still intact. @BillyHeathFOX5/X

Eight people were hospitalized, and six were in critical condition, said Georgia DNR spokesperson Tyler Jones.

Engineers are still investigating why the structure, which was built in 2021, failed, and it is “way too early” to determine the cause of the collapse, Jones told the New York Post.

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

The deadly collapse happened as island residents, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of 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.”

—With Post wires