JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville church identified one of its longtime members as one of the seven victims killed in a dock gangway collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island on Saturday.
RELATED | 4 of 7 killed in Georgia dock gangway collapse were from Jacksonville, coroner confirms
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Impact Church released a statement Monday and said that Cynthia Gibbs, who was 74 years old, had been serving in the church for more than a decade.
“Cynthia Gibbs will be remembered well by her Impact Church family. She has been a loved, appreciated, faithful part of the Impact for over 15 years. Throughout that time, her love for God has been consistently evident, as has her passion for serving Him through her dedicated service to her church and her community. Cynthia was always ready to lend a helping hand, quick with a funny quip, full of energy, and so consistent that we maintained a staff workspace for her in our ministry offices. We are stunned at the sudden circumstance of her transition and will greatly miss her. We are, however, comforted by the knowledge that we will see her again in Heaven. We continue to pray for her loved ones and for all those who have been touched by the tragedy in Sapelo Island, Georgia.”
Impact Church
According to the McIntosh County coroner, four of the seven people killed in the collapse were from Jacksonville. Among the other three victims, one was from Atlanta, another from “the Atlanta area” and another from Darien, Georgia.
The victims were identified as:
- Isaiah Thomas, 79, from Jacksonville
- Carlotta Mcintosh, 93, from Jacksonville
- Jacqueline Crews Carter, 75, from Jacksonville
- Cynthia Alynn Gibbs, 74, from Jacksonville
- Charles League Houston, 77, from Darien, Ga.
- Queen Welch, 76, Atlanta
- William Lee Johnson Jr., 73, from the Atlanta area
First responders said as many as 40 people were on the dock gangway when it collapsed, sending at least 20 people tumbling into the water.
“It is a structural failure. There should be very, very little maintenance to an aluminum gangway like that, but we’ll see what the investigation unfolds,” Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon said at a news conference a day after the tragedy.