Jennifer and Michael Popper
Jennifer and Michael Popper
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Two people are dead and a woman seriously injured after their kayaks overturned off the coast of MDI on Wednesday.

The Coast Guard reports that they received word at 6:30 p.m. from a woman who said her husband and two others hadn't returned from their kayak excursion. They were due at 4:30 p.m., but hadn't shown up.

The waves, reportedly three to five feet high, caused all three kayaks to capsize in the approximately fifty-two degree water, according to a news release from the Maine Marine Patrol.

Members of the Coast Guard and Maine Marine Patrol launched a search, locating a woman clinging to her overturned kayak at around 8 p.m. Authorities have identified the woman as Jennifer Popper, 48, of Plainfield, New Jersey. They say she was hypothermic and unable to speak. She was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

A second kayaker was found unresponsive about 30 minutes later, and the third found sometime after that. Both people were pronounced dead. They have been identified as Edward Brackett, 63, of Birch Harbor and Jennifer Popper's husband, Michael Popper, 54.

"This is a very tragic outcome," said Kenneth Stuart, the command duty officer at Sector North New England, in a news release. "We deeply appreciate the efforts of those local boaters who assisted tonight and we’ll be working to determine what happened and how to prevent such accidents from occurring in the future."

The Coast Guard is investigating the incident.

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