WAVES FROM HURRICANE BILL CLAIM LIFE OF 7 YEAR OLD GIRL BY THUNDER HOLE - ACADIA 2009

 Deaths In Acadia National Park;

posted Aug. 24, 2009

Clio Dahyun Axilrod and her parents had joined the thousands of visitors on Sunday enthralled by the spectacular waves fueled by Hurricane Bill that were breaking off the Atlantic Coast of Acadia National Park in Maine.

But as one series of waves crashed off the rocky cliffs about 350 feet south of the popular Thunder Hole, , the family, from New York City, recognized the danger, turned around and headed up a diagonal path toward the roadway.

They were about 40 feet from the main road, Ocean Drive witnesses told a park ranger, when a 20-foot-high swell exploded into the air, sweeping Clio, 7, her father, Peter J. Axilrod, 55, and five other people out to sea. Clio’s mother, Sandra M. Kuhach, 51, was knocked to the ground and seriously injured.

Officials said on Monday that 13 people were hit by the giant wave and admitted to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Me.

Officials said on Monday that 13 people were hit by the giant wave and admitted to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Me.

Four of those who were dragged into the ocean were able to make it out of the 55-degree water on their own, said a Coast Guard spokesman, Chief Petty Officer Christopher Wheeler.

About an hour after the wave carried Mr. Axilrod into the ocean, he was rescued by the Coast Guard in a 47-foot lifeboat.

A 12-year-old girl, Simone Pelletier of Belfast, Me., was also brought to safety by the Coast Guard and taken to Mount Desert Island Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

But it took rescuers more than three hours to locate Clio, who was found unresponsive about a half-mile from shore. She died from drowning, the Maine Marine Patrol said Monday.

Her parents remained hospitalized at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, a patrol spokesman said in a news release. The family lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, opposite Gracie Mansion.
 Neighbors on Monday described Clio as an energetic child who liked to swim with her friends in the rooftop pool of the 20-story building where the family lived.