(CNN) -- Fierce waves churned up by Hurricane Bill were linked to the deaths of two people at the weekend, including a 7-year-old girl swept out to sea off Maine, officials reported.
Tourists watch waves crash ashore at Acadia National Park in Maine on Sunday.
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The girl died Sunday after a large ocean wave kicked up by Hurricane Bill knocked her and two other people into the Atlantic at Maine's Acadia National Park, a park official said. The other two survived after being rescued by the Coast Guard.
Waves injured a few other people at the park, knocking them to the ground or into rocks and crevices, said Sheridan Steele, the park's superintendent. Some were taken to a hospital with broken bones or other injuries, according to Steele.
The victims were among several thousand people who were at the park late Sunday morning to watch the high waves that Bill -- then a Category 1 hurricane -- was producing. iReport.com: See photos shot before tragic wave incident
"Even though we try to warn people and try to get people to watch from a safe distance, we weren't able to contact everybody in time," Steele said Sunday evening. Watch man being pulled from water »
A day before, the body of an Orlando, Florida, man was pulled to shore by a surfer who noticed him floating in the water off New Smyrna Beach, just south of Daytona Beach, said Scott Petersohn, public information officer for the Volusia County Beach Patrol.
Angel Rosa, 54, had come with family to Bethune Beach, one of Volusia County's 40 miles of beaches, Petersohn said. Although the lifeguards had warned people not to go in the water because the offshore wind built waves to between 10 and 13 feet tall, Petersohn said, he suspects that's exactly why Rosa was in the water.
"I have a feeling he probably came over to body surf these huge waves," he said. He added that such waves come along only every few years.
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Rosa entered the water Saturday afternoon with a group, but was separated from them, Petersohn said. His fellow swimmers reported Rosa missing, he said, and as rescue teams were mobilizing, beach patrol received an emergency call that a man had been dragged to shore a half-mile away.
Petersohn said Rosa might have suffered some kind of trauma that contributed to his drowning. Emergency personnel treated three spinal injuries during the weekend, Petersohn said, as the tough waves slammed swimmers into the bottom.
An autopsy report on Rosa is expected in coming days.
"It's very unfortunate that this happened and everyone feels terrible about it, but it's not something I'm surprised about," Petersohn said. "As big as the surf was, as treacherous as it was, it doesn't surprise me."
Bill was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier Monday as it headed into the northern Atlantic.
At 5 a.m. ET, the storm was generating maximum sustained winds of near 70 mph (110 kph) as headed east on a route that was expected to take it to the British Isles by midweek, according to a forecast map from the National Hurricane Center.
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