Sapelo Island community holds memorial for victims of gangway collapse

Kawundo.com

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MCINTOSH COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) — The Sapelo Island community held a memorial service Wednesday night to honor those that were killed in the gangway collapse earlier this month.

“I was actually on the gangway when it started collapsing, when it made the noise. Me and my son kind of were the last ones to jump onto the ferry side of the dock as it fell,” Daniel Islas, who attended the service, said,

“There were just people floating right there. I remember just all their faces too as they were going into the water, just how they all looked. It was just like ‘somebody do something,” he continued.

The people on Sapelo and the surrounding community said that they won’t forget those faces, or the names of the victims, anytime soon.

Attendees scattered rose petals off the dock on the Darien side of the ferry route in honor of each of those who died the day of the gangway collapse. The memorial was followed by a church service.

For those who survived, the events of Oct. 19 are still fresh.

“I could not believe it,” Audrey Grovner, who was on the island during the collapse, said. “I was screaming. I was crying. I was nervous

Islas said, “Jump scares been really bothering me since. I got emotional yesterday with a firetruck getting behind me.”

A Sapelo resident, Yvonne Grovner, said, “I’m going to talk…To get counseling and stuff for me because I was one of the first responders helping on that dock that day.”

When asked what it’s been like for her since the collapse, Grovner said it’s been “a nightmare. Ever since then, I haven’t slept a whole full night.”

Members of Sapelo’s tight-knit community said that they’re looking forward to change in the aftermath of a tragedy that’s brought them all together.

“This is a wakeup call for Sapelo, for a lot of stuff that’s going on Sapelo. This is the wakeup call,” Grovner said.

The cause of the gangway collapse is still under investigation by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

In the meantime, the people with ties to Sapelo are attempting to begin healing from this tragedy.

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