‘Scarred for the rest of my life’: Survivors testify about Sapelo Island dock collapse that killed 7

Caption

Yvonne Brockington testifies remotely from a hospital bed during a Georgia Senate hearing Thursday into the Oct. 19 collapse of the Sapelo Island dock that killed seven people.

Credit: Georgia Senate Urban Affairs Committee

Several survivors of the Oct. 19 dock collapse on Coastal Georgia's Sapelo Island testified Thursday at a hearing convened by the Georgia Senate's Urban Affairs Committee, as attorneys for the victims call for a federal investigation into the tragedy that killed seven people and injured an unknown number of others.

At least 20 people were on the state-owned dock's aluminum gangway waiting to board a ferry back to mainland McIntosh County when it collapsed, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the ferry and dock.

Regina Brinson of Jacksonville, Fla., was among the survivors.

“When we got in the center of that gangway, all I can say is I heard a crack — and when I heard a crack, all of a sudden it's like the ground just pulled out from under me,” testified Brinson, who said that she had been standing next to 93-year-old Carlotta McIntosh, the eldest of the seven people who died, when the gangway collapsed.

“I was holding on to Mrs. McIntosh's walker, and all of a sudden the crack came across my feet and her walker zoomed into the water like somebody was just diving in the water,” Brinson said.

The six others who died were all in their 70s, including Brinson's uncle, Isaiah Thomas, who was 79 and flailing in the water next to Brinson.

“I said, ‘Grab my hand,’ and he grabbed my hand, not knowing that he was going to grab my shirt as well,” she said. “And when he grabbed my shirt, he kept pulling me and pulling me under the water. I was struggling to breathe. I was saying to myself, ‘My God, I am going to die today. I am going to die today.’ And in this fight, the spirit told me, ‘You're going to have to release your uncle — you're going to have to release your uncle to live.’ So, that's what I did.”

Brinson testified that ever since the tragedy, she has experienced nightmares and has found it hard to eat and focus during the day.

“I could be sitting, and all of a sudden now see my uncle's face,” she said. “This is something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life, and I'm going to be scarred for the rest of my life, for what I experienced at the island I went to for a festival.”

About 700 people were visiting Sapelo Island that day for an annual festival celebrating Gullah Geechee culture, as the island is home to one of the nation's last intact communities of Gullah Geechee people — descendants of enslaved West Africans who worked island plantations in the Southeast.

Darrel Jenkins traveled to the festival from Maryland, and testified that he is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, compounding the PTSD that the veteran already has from his military service.

“There was no EMS services; we were the EMS services,” Jenkins said about the initial recovery efforts. “I see people sweeping away — the current taking the people, and I'm like, ‘No Lord, it can't happen like this, it can't happen like this.’”

Although Jenkins was able to help take people out of the water, he said that he doesn't know if they ultimately survived and that he feels guilty about not having done more: “I said, ‘Lord, you said I could do all things.’”

Yvonne Brockington testified remotely from her hospital bed as she recovers from injuries sustained during the collapse.

“I feel like I'm in an elevator dropping, and all of a sudden the elevator stops,” she recalled. “I don't know what's happening, but I can feel my ankles breaking.”

Brockington had organized a group outing of senior citizens to attend the festival for their first time, including Carlotta McIntosh, one of the deceased.

“I feel responsible because I got all these people together, but there's nothing I can do to help them because I can't help myself,” she testified, saying that she was immobilized by her injuries and had to be roped ashore like a “ragdoll.”

“No one should have perished that day,” Brockington said. “The safeguards were not in place, and I don't understand why.”

Several attorneys also testified at the hearing, including Natalie Jackson, a litigator in the law firm of prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump. She said that victims have been “left alone to bear the full weight of everything,” including medical and funeral expenses and access to mental health care.

“They trusted that this island would be safe and that their lives would be valued and their wellbeing would be valued by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the state of Georgia,” Jackson testified. “Instead, they've been met with silence, inaction and a complete absence of immediate support.”

In response to GPB's request for comment on the hearing, a DNR spokesperson wrote that the agency had been invited by Georgia Senate Urban Affairs Committee Chairwoman Donzella James to speak at the hearing, but that the agency was unable to do so because the dock collapse is currently under investigation by the DNR and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The Sapelo Island dock was built in 2021 as part of a settlement by the state of Georgia resolving a federal lawsuit brought by Sapelo Island residents who alleged inadequate infrastructure and basic services.

Attorney and Savannah NAACP President Chadrick Mance testified at the Georgia Senate hearing that the mental health currently felt by some of the surviving victims is so awful that it “will make the living jealous of the dead.”

“Mental health is already an issue in the African American community and diaspora,” he said. “And this is the worst mental health case that I have ever seen in all of my years of practicing with injured victims. Nightmares, PTSD, recurring episodes of trauma. Grown men who are ‘man's men’ crying. People with no relief.”

As the dock collapse remains under investigation by the DNR and GBI, attorneys are urging the federal government to launch its own probe.

“We just have seen this too many times where the perpetrator attempts to investigate themselves,” testified Savannah attorney Mawuli Davis. “We did this same fight in Georgia around police accountability, where the police who perpetrated the violence against the community members were also the ones who were going to investigate. That makes no sense.”