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Cleanup Underway After 2 Kayakers on Lake Camplain Die Amid Storms in Vermont

State police had searched for John Duncan into the night Tuesday and found his body Wednesday

The body of a second missing kayaker was pulled from Lake Champlain Wednesday, police said, as emergency personnel, public works crews, homeowners, and parks employees dealt with the aftermath of the powerful thunderstorms that contributed to the kayakers' deaths.

Two kayaks overturned after a storm came through the area Tuesday afternoon, including that of 73-year-old John Duncan of Huntington, Vermont.

Celine Teeson, also 73, of Colchester, was pulled from Malletts Bay in Lake Champlain about 45 minutes after her vessel capsized Tuesday and was pronounced dead after being brought to the University of Vermont Medical Center.

State police continued searching for Duncan until after the sun went down. The search resumed Wednesday morning, using high-definition side scan sonar. A short time later, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter from Platsburgh, New York, arrived to help find him, according to a statement from Colchester police.

Duncan's body was located about eight feet underwater, approximately 1,000 feet from the shore, police said.

Personal flotation devices were found with the kayaks, unworn by the victims, according to police.

"You want to watch for weather—keep track of weather," advised Chief Doug Allen of the Colchester Police Department. "Certainly, there's enough outlets to do that. And if you're in the water, really have the life vest on you. Especially if you're in a kayak, which is susceptible to being tipped anyway."

In Burlington's Ethan Allen Park, the city's Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Department was cleaning up toppled trees Wednesday. They fell Tuesday afternoon during the fast-moving storm's straight-line winds.

The parks department said it will likely take until at least through the end of the week to finish the cleanup, which also will see crews working in other areas, including around North Beach and the adjacent campground.

North Hero, in the Champlain Islands, clocked a 76 mile-per-hour wind gust Tuesday.

In Alburgh, Sandra Gokey had a large tree crash across her driveway.

"We were just thankful it didn't fall on the house," Gokey told necn.

In Essex, another fallen tree left public works busy on Brigham Hill Road, where they were they told a story from Tuesday that illustrates how storm cleanup can be dangerous work for road crews and line workers.

"One of the pieces of the trunk was, like, six feet long, and the gentleman from Green Mountain Power was cutting it to get it off the line," Robert Miller of the Essex Public Works Department recalled. "And when he made that last cut, it just released the pressure on the lines and sent that log maybe 10 feet in the air, spinning in the air--it was unbelievable."

No one was hurt by that log, Green Mountain Power confirmed Wednesday.

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