They had come to Sapelo Island, Ga., just off the curve of coast, for a celebration of resilience, of a people, of a culture that for generations had been so fragile but could not be broken. The smell of smoked mullet drifted. Vendors sold red peas and rice. Performers onstage presented poetry and sang African spirituals.
But then, a strange cracking noise. The walkway to the dock suddenly shifted. Then it collapsed. Everyone's falling into the water, and you're hearing screams, said Michael Wood, 43, who had been waiting in line to board.
On Sunday, members of the tight-knit Gullah Geechee community, descendants of formerly enslaved people in the Southeast, who had gathered for a festival celebrating their heritage, mourned four women and three men, all of them older than 70, who were killed.
The initial findings of our investigation at this point showed a catastrophic failure of the gangway, causing it to collapse, said Walter Rabon, the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
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