JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A prayer vigil is planned Thursday in Jacksonville to remember the seven people killed in the Sapelo Island gangway collapse in Georgia that happened last Saturday.
The vigil at 6 p.m. Thursday is at St. Paul AME Church on New Kings Road, where two of the victims were members.
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Four of the victims were from Jacksonville. The seven victims were:
- 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
McIntosh and Thomas were members of the congregation at St. Paul AME Church.
They were among the 20 people who fell into the water after a gangway collapsed as they were trying to get on a ferry on Sapelo Island.
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They were there with around 700 people to attend a fall cultural celebration of the Gullah-Geechee community of slave descendants.
The commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources called the collapse a “catastrophic failure.” The gangway has been removed and the ferry dock is back open.
Thomas was 79 years old. He fell into the water along with his niece, who described the horrific details of what happened next.
“All of us ended up in the water. And then I realized I saw my uncle and I said, ‘Uncle, grab my hand!’” said Regina Brinson, who survived. “And he grabbed my hand, but he grabbed my shirt too, and he kept pulling me and pulling me under the water. And I kept saying to myself, ‘Oh my God, I‘m going to die. I‘m going to die.’ I had to take his fingers one by one and peel them off of my shirt. I floated back up to the top. I saw his face and was like, ’Oh my God! What did I do?‘“
McIntosh was the oldest of the victims at 93. Her friend, Daisy Hicks, was also there when the gangway gave way and saw everything happen.
She said she will always hold onto the memories she has of McIntosh.
“She was a sweet lady,” Hicks said. “Very funny. She would keep you laughing all of the time and she liked to travel.”