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[jrheavymetal]

A bad title, I'll admit, because most of the dangers in Acadia National Park, like any other national park, are pretty well known. We have had a very rough week in the Park, with broken bones and broken backs, and that was all before Hurrican Bob swept all those people off the rocks and out to sea.
The waves were unbelieveable, just look at that Youtube video of the coastguard rescue and you know instantly just how grave the situation was that day. My only thought was and is, what were these people thinking? I know the waves were unusual and it was exciting seeing them, and everyone wanted to get as close as they could, but common sense has to prevail, or your asking for trouble. The tragidy is that a very young girl lost her life needlessly.

http://augusta.maineville.com/detail/11744...d#comments-post


Below is yet another link to a series of accidents that have occured here this past week. I think, in part, when we travel or go on vacation, we tend to let our guard down, but we seem to get a rash of serious accidents and deaths here every year. Not all are avoidable, but many are.

http://hancock.villagesoup.com//Government...?storyid=172592


On this other link, the poor woman stepped backwars on a cliff to get a better picture and ended up stepping right off the cilff. I can honestly relate to this, as I almost lost my life doing the same thing. If not for the grace of God and a single tree branch, I would not be around today. The lady in this story is very lucky she survived the fall.

http://mdi.villagesoup.com/Government/stor...?storyid=172955

[starlagurl]

Wow! Yeah, it certainly is a shame. I would be interested in seeing the coast guard video you're talking about.

I can't say I've ever had the same close call as you, JR, but I can definitely see it happening. Excited people do strange things.

I wonder why that is! I mean, it's not an evolutionary advantage at all...

[jrheavymetal]

The coast guard video is on the first link, up neat the top. The young girl who died, her parents are still in the local hospital, I believe. Everyone in town is still talking about it. The sad thing is, we came close to having other young children lost at sea that day, mainly due to parents with no common sense. I sat in town down by the town pier and watched as some parents looked on laughing as huge crashing waves came up close to their young children. At times they were only a couple feet from getting swept into the ocean. The parents didn't seem to sense any danger at all.

[starlagurl]

Oh it was embedded right in the story...

Wow... that's incredible... I'm not sure how close I would be getting to those waves, even if I was watching from the shore... wow...

[jrheavymetal]

I went down by the sea with my kids, but we stayed way to hell back, but we are now facing a repeat performance as yet another hurricane makes its way up toward the Maine coast. And the Governor came down here today and had a long meeting with park officials about how to better handle this next time.
I don't think the park officials liked what the governor had to say, because after the meeeting, they, in my opinion, were rather flip with their answers after the meeting. When asked how they would handle this next time, a park official remarked, "Maybe next time we will just close the park down, and when mobs of people line up to get into the park, we'll simply tell them to turn around and go home."

[starlagurl]

Hmmm, interesting.

I heard a piece on the radio today (from Newfoundland) about how people were TOO safe, and complaining that there were too many warnings.

[jrheavymetal]

If it had been as bad as reported, we clearly would have had hundreds injured and in the sea. Which we clearly didn't. The handful that did get swept off the rocks had gone out on a section that juttered outward. And I don't think they should close the park down during rough sea,s just because a few people were risk takers.
Like some are saying up here, we have far more people killed and seriously injuried each year falling off cliffs on mountains then we do at sea, so maybe they should close the mountains down.
And I don't think it's fair to paint the crowds as tourists, which I have seen news crews and newspapers do, because the majority of the people there that day were Mainers. They got phone calls or heard on the radio or internet about the huge waves and flocked down to the shoreline. Its a local ritual that happens with every big storm, we all head for Thunder hole, it has high cliffs overlooking the action of the waves.
I am sure in Canada they must also have some place that's simular.

[starlagurl]

Yeah, there must be a place like that on the east coast somewhere... probably just about anywhere on the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.