SAPELO ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC/Gray News) – The Meridian Dock in McIntosh County, Georgia, is a place where people can usually take a ferry to go to Sapelo Island.
It’s usually pretty still and pretty quiet. But the dock was a completely different scene Saturday night.
People attending the 2024 Cultural Day on Sapelo Island recall the day starting as a joyous occasion.
“It was just sensational,” said vendor Willie Anderson Jr.
Until it wasn’t. Some call it an unthinkable tragedy.
City of Darien Mayor Protem Griffin Lotson was in the middle of a conversation when he got word that something was wrong.
“Everybody stopped laughing, he said, ‘No something happened. There’s people in the water,’” said Lotson.
The Department of Natural Resources says around 20 people fell into the water when the Marsh Landing Dock gangway collapsed.
Seven people died from that collapse, six went to the hospital with serious injuries, and two were life-flighted.
“All at the same time. One broke their leg, everybody went to the hospital, two are still in the hospital, but thank God not any of them died,” said Lotson.
He calls the moment horrific. For him, that went beyond the panic for the shouters.
“Everybody was saying ‘Lotson, the report is that you were missing and in the water drowned,’” said Lotson. “I didn’t even know it, by that night, it had gone all the way to Washington. My government friends, all the way up to the White House. It was weird. I wasn’t dead but everybody thought I had died.”
It was a moment he says, he won’t forget. But more than anything, everyone recalls the sense of community that filled the county after this tragedy.
“Yesterday it was incredible. You would’ve thought it was the president landing because they had more help than you could shake a stick at,” said Lotson.
“We formed a circle and started praying, it became pretty, pretty solemn then,” said Anderson.
All seven people who died have been identified. The victims ranged in age from 73 to 93, according to McIntosh County Coroner Melvin Amerson.
Lotson’s message for their families is simple.
“I don’t want to say I have words that’s going to heal. But do know, as being a part of your sorrow, we do feel your pain,” said Lotson.
Grieving relatives appeared with civil rights attorney Ben Crump at a news conference in Jacksonville on Tuesday as he called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate, according to the Associated Press.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock, is leading the state’s investigation into why the aluminum gangway failed.
“These senior citizens were vibrant people,” Crump said. He added: “They did not die of natural causes. They died of negligence.”
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