Columbia University student from Ireland Ella Mills is killed in a freak kayaking accident in Little Falls on the Potomac River
Ella Mills, an Irish Columbia University student, is killed in a freak kayaking accident at Little Falls on the Potomac River.
- Ella Mills, a former student at Trinity College Dublin, had moved to New York a few days earlier.
- She found herself trapped under a rock by a strong current after being knocked out of her boat.
- Pete Piringer of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Department said being stuck underwater in that area would be like “having 500 pounds of pressure against you.”
The brother of a young Irish woman has said he is heartbroken after she died in a freak kayaking accident just days after starting a new life in the United States.
Ella Mills had arrived from Dublin to study English at Columbia University in New York earlier this month and had signed up within days for a trip to the Potomac in Washington DC with the university’s Whitewater Kayaking Club.
But she was knocked from her boat on a stretch near Little Falls and caught by a current that swept her under a rock around 3:15 p.m. Sunday.
The group desperately tried to free her, but the force of the water kept her underwater as first responders rushed to the scene.
“It’s very disappointing, in some areas it seems calm, but it’s not,” said Pete Piringer with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.
“If you’re submerged even a foot or two underwater, it’s like you have 500 pounds of pressure against you.”
Columbia University student Ella Mills in a photo posted by her former high school in Dublin
The stretch of whitewater at Little Falls on the Potomac is a magnet for kayakers but potentially deadly
First responders were unable to save the student’s life when they arrived on scene.
Ella had just moved to Manhattan as a third-year general studies student on the university’s Dual BA program, after studying English at Trinity College Dublin.
“She loved learning, was intellectually curious, and passionate about literature – eager to imbibe new ways of seeing literature and seeing the world as a literary scholar,” wrote Columbia professor Lisa Rosen-Metsch , in a tribute as she broke out. news of the death to students.
“She was an active member of the Trinity College Dublin community in the Trinity College Dublin Drama Society, DU Players, Trinity College Dublin Tennis Club and the Philosophical Society, among others.
“To our GS community, we grieve with you and hold Ella, her family and friends in our thoughts and hearts.”
The university was to hold a counseling session for Ella’s friends, and her brother Leo praised her for her response.
“This is truly heartbreaking, but I am extremely happy that the school is being proactive in this area,” he wrote.
About two dozen people from Colombia were traveling when the tragedy occurred near Chain Bridge, on a stretch of the river that runs northwest of the capital toward Maryland.
Pete Piringer of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue warned that still waters can be very deceptive
The beautiful stretch of the Potomac is not far from the DC-Maryland border.
Ella’s teachers described her as “intellectually curious and passionate about literature.”
Ella was described as “very cherished” by her former headteacher at Sutton Park School in Dublin, where she graduated in 2020.
“Ella’s mother, Jo-Ann Feely, will be known to many of you as chair of our board of trustees,” principal Ronan Walsh wrote on the school’s website.
“Our hearts are broken for Jo-Ann’s two siblings, Ralph and Ella, Isabel and Leo, who are in second grade.
“It’s a truly tragic time. Words fail us all. Our sympathies and thoughts are with Ella’s family and her large group of friends. May she rest in peace.’