US President Joe Biden stated that he and his wife Jill are mourning the lives lost and “praying for the injured and anyone still missing”. It is not yet clear what caused the collapse of the walkway, which connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore, according to local reports. Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, expressed being “heartbroken” by the tragedy and requested prayers “for those lost, for those still in harm’s way, and for their families”. The governor has dispatched “state resources to aid in search, rescue, & recovery”, as mentioned by Georgia representative Buddy Carter in a post on X. Local authorities confirmed that the gangway has been secured and the incident is under investigation. Biden mentioned that his team “stand ready to provide any and all assistance that would be helpful to the community”. The annual event occurring at the time of the collapse commemorates the island’s community of Hogg Hummock, which is inhabited by a few dozen Black residents. Hogg Hummock was established by newly-freed former slaves from plantations in coastal Georgia who settled on Sapelo Island after the US Civil War, as per the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation website, external. President Biden remarked in his statement that Saturday’s event “should have been a joyous celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation”. Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South, known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia, are dispersed along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Sapelo Island is accessible from the mainland by boat.
