September 2, 2009

This is no news to people who live by the sea but to those who are landlocked or work indoors the ocean looks powerful but benign when you’re standing on high ground.

Though it’s been 10 days since it happened, all the talk among the tourists at Acadia National Park is about the killer wave from Hurricane Bill on August 23, 2009 which swept over spectators near Thunder Hole, injuring more than a dozen people, dragging three into the sea and killing one of them, a seven-year-old girl.

My grainy photo above doesn’t show the horror of that moment.  Paul Colby of Belfast, Maine was there and captured the aftermath of the wave with people crouching and trying to get back to dry land. More spectators had been sitting on the rocks where the foam was churning, but they’re gone. Click here for Paul’s photo and here for the article in the Bangor Daily News.

Tropical Storm Danny was threatening the coast with similar weather when we arrived in New England on Saturday.  We spent a very wet, windy, gray day in New Hampshire and have had beautiful weather ever since.  We’ve had no desire to look at waves.  We hear they’re only 1-2 feet high today.  Good!

(photo by Kate St. John, taken in 2010)