Benjamin Payne

I'm a Georgia voter 🗳️

Several survivors testified Thursday at a Georgia Senate hearing on the recent Sapelo Island dock collapse that killed seven people. One woman recounted having to let go of her uncle, who would later die, in order to save her own life. gpb.org/news/2024/11/0…

Feels like summer (if summer in Savannah felt nice), but looks like fall. Halloween is nigh.

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus and civil rights attorneys held a news conference Monday evening vowing to seek accountability and justice after part of a state-operated ferry dock collapsed Saturday on the island, killing seven people. bit.ly/3BRDWn1

.@benjaminpayne is all over the Sapelo dock collapse story, where descendant and Sapelo native JR Grovner tells GPB he warned officials the structure was unsafe — before it failed, killing seven. gpb.org/news/2024/10/2…

A resident of Sapelo Island in McIntosh County said that he warned the Georgia Department of Natural Resources last summer that the agency's ferry dock gangway on the island was in poor condition, months before it collapsed Saturday, killing seven people. bit.ly/3C2nDna

Tragedy on coastal Georgia's Sapelo Island, where the dock's gangway collapsed Saturday, killing at least seven people. An annual festival of Gullah Geechee culture was happening on the island. Here's a photo of the dock that I took aboard a ferry last month on a reporting trip.

he 🌳 is 🕷️ back

A Savannah man has been found guilty on six federal charges for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In a ruling issued Monday Dominic Box, 34, was convicted on two felony counts of civil disorder and four misdemeanors. bit.ly/3UcMlrk

LISTEN: GPB's Benjamin Payne traveled to Coastal Georgia's Sapelo Island, where he spoke with Gullah Geechee community members about a recent rezoning that they worry will price out descendants of enslaved people. bit.ly/3YBC0bf

Savannah voter Jude Blassingale expressed a similar concern about political division in the U.S. On why she decided to vote the first day she could: "I'm just afraid of the political climate this time around. It doesn't seem so safe. So, I want to do it very, very early." #gapol

Early voting in Georgia begins today. Savannah resident Lila Black-Berlon told me after she cast her ballot that she doesn't enjoy living in a battleground state, and explained why. #gapol

Early voting in Georgia starts Tuesday. Enthusiasm appears to be running high in Savannah, where I saw not one but two of these signs with election-related deadlines on a yard in my neighborhood. #gapol

Monica and Leon Childress drove 10 hours with their puppy from Bradenton, Florida, to a hotel in Savannah to evacuate from Hurricane Milton. They don't know when they'll be able to return home, but told me they're grateful the hurricane veered from its initial trajectory. #Milton

Georgia @GovKemp in Savannah yesterday: "With the amount of power we have coming back on [after Helene], people's water coming back on, grocery stores opening back up, we've been able to pull back some of our Guard resources so we can re-deploy them if needed to Florida." #Milton

In Georgia's southeasternmost county, Camden County, emergency management director Chuck White told me there's still much debris from Helene that has yet to be picked up from people's yards, and that it could create a "missile hazard" with Milton. gpb.org/news/2024/10/0… #Milton

My new address wouldn't show up on Georgia's My Voter Page when I tried to update it, so I had to visit my county's voter registration office in person. Whatever it takes. Vote.

Andy Leanza, the emergency management director for Glynn County, Georgia, told me today that saturated ground and damaged infrastructure caused by Hurricane Helene will likely make his area more vulnerable to Hurricane Milton than it would otherwise be. #Milton

Former President Donald Trump will be heading back to Savannah later this month to speak at an NRA event. He held a rally last week in Savannah focused loosely on his economic agenda for higher tariffs and a lower corporate tax rate: gpb.org/news/2024/09/2…

I went to Savannah's Forsyth Park last night for my first time since Hurricane Helene hit, and saw this big magnolia tree toppled over next to the fountain. #Helene