A large wave fueled by Hurricane Bill swept spectators out to sea at a Maine park Sunday as the storm-churned surf attracted onlookers and daredevils along the Eastern Seaboard. A man, a woman and a 7-year-old girl were pulled from the sea near Acadia National Park, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Shane Coxon said.

“This is absolutely the effects of Hurricane Bill” coupled with the effect of high tide, park ranger Sonya Berger said.

The girl, who was from New York, died and her parents were injured, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. He said the family was from New York, but had no further information about them this evening.

Another nine people were taken to the hospital, according to the Coast Guard.

Two others were feared to be missing earlier in the day, but it was later determined that everyone was accounted for, according to Petty Officer James Rhodes.

The center of the hurricane was about 230 miles west of Newfoundland on Sunday night, according to the National Hurricane Center. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, and it was moving northeast at 35 mph. The storm is expected to continue to lose strength as it moves over cooler waters.

The three rescued in Maine were part of an early afternoon crowd of thousands who lined the national park’s rocky shoreline to watch the high surf and crashing waves.

About 20 people were swept into the ocean and 17 of them got out on their own, Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Sansoucie said. About 10 of those people were taken to the hospital for minor injuries, he said. Others on shore suffered minor injuries after being knocked to the rocks by the waves, Acadia National Park Chief Ranger Stuart West said.

James Kaiser of Bar Harbor was taking photographs when he heard shouts that people had been swept into the 55-degree water at the park’s Thunder Hole, a popular tourist attraction where waves often crash into a crevasse and make a thundering sound while splashing high in the air.

“I could see two people’s heads bobbing in the water,” Kaiser said. He said he thought they would be bounced back to shore because the waves were coming in so hard but that instead the current took them away from shore. Kaiser said many people didn’t even move when they were splashed by the waves and instead seemed to laugh it off.

(Source: Bangor Daily News / Potland Press Herald)