WESTERLY, R.I. -- The front doors of the Westerly Police Headquarters had blown open several times shortly before 7 p.m. as the wind gusts from Hurricane Sandy pummeled this seaside town.
"Things are bad," said police Lt.Michael Turano, who is also the town's emergency management director.
Roughly 85 percent of the town has lost power, and some 50 trees and telephone poles have been felled by the storm thus far. The entire beach area of Misquamicut is flooded, he said, while high tide was still hours away.
Turano said the police believe most people south of Shore Road, which runs above the beach and coastal ponds areas, heeded the town's mandatory evacuation for low-lying areas.
Fire rescue crews did help about two people on Monday, he said, who could not get their vehicles out because of the water levels.
He stressed how important it is to heed such evacuations. "If you didn't leave, you're now putting first responders' lives in danger needlessly."
Meanwhile, about a dozen National Guardsmen are blocking various checkpoints in town so people don't travel down flooded roads toward the surging ocean waters, he said.
The brightly lit station on Airport Road, a beacon of illumination in a dark town where the wind gusts appear to be gaining strength, is operating on generator power.
More: See Rhode Island power outages mapped by town throughout the storm