SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Authorities said at least seven people were killed Saturday when part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, where crowds had gathered for a fall celebration by the small Gullah-Geechee community of black slave descendants on the island.

Eight people were taken to hospitals, at least six with serious injuries, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, McIntosh County Fire Department, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others searched the water, Natural Resources spokesman Tyler Jones said. . The agency operates the port and ferries that transport people between the island and the mainland.

A gangplank at the wharf collapsed, sending people plunging into the water, Jones said. A team of engineers and construction specialists planned to be on site early Sunday to investigate why the walkway failed, he said.

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

Helicopters and boats with side-scanning sonar were used in the search, according to a statement from the Department of Natural Resources.

A chaplain from the state agency was among those killed, Jones said.

At least 20 people were on the gangplank when it collapsed, he said. The gangway connected an outside dock where people boarded the ferry to another dock on land.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he and his family were “heartbroken by today’s tragedy on Sapelo Island.”

“As state and local first responders continue to work at this active site, we ask that all Georgians join us in praying for the lost, for those still in danger, and for their families,” Kemp said on the social platform X.

President Joe Biden said federal officials stood ready to provide any assistance needed.

“What should have been a joyful celebration of Gullah-Geechee culture and history instead turned into tragedy and devastation,” Biden said in a statement. “Jill and I mourn those who have lost their lives, and we pray for the injured and anyone still missing. We are also grateful to the first responders on scene.”

Sapelo Island is located about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Savannah and can be reached by boat from the mainland.

The deadly collapse occurred as islanders, family members and tourists gathered for Cultural Day, an annual fall event that spotlights the island’s small community of Hogg Hummock, home to several dozen black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded after the Civil War by former slaves from Thomas Spalding’s cotton plantation.

Hogg Hummock’s slave descendants are very close because they are “connected by family, connected by history and connected 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 every tragedy, especially like this, they are all one. They are all united. They all feel the same pain and the same pain.”

Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South – known as Gullah or Geechee in Georgia – are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say that separation from the mainland allowed residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as casting net fishing and basket weaving.

In 1996, Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of the United States’ cherished historic sites.

But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders who built vacation homes.

Tax increases and zoning changes by local government in McIntosh County have been met with protests and lawsuits by Hogg Hummock residents and landowners. They have spent the past year fighting to overturn zoning changes approved by county commissioners in September 2023 that doubled the size of permitted homes in Hogg Hummock.

Residents say they fear bigger homes will lead to tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have owned for generations.