Chafee: 'We'll be ready' for Sandy

WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) -- Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee urged Rhode Islanders to be prepared and pay careful attention to the forecasts ahead of Hurricane Sandy's arrival.

Chafee held a brief news conference at the Greenwich Bay Marina in Warwick at noon Saturday and said state agencies and utilities were prepared for the storm's arrival.

"We'll be ready," Chafee said.

State, local and federal agencies have been in contact with one another, the Governor said, and have applied the lessons learned from last year's Tropical Storm Irene to their work this time around.

Chafee singled out the fact that National Grid crews have stockpiled much more hardware in anticipation of power outages when Sandy strikes; last year, some Rhode Islanders were without power for days in Irene's wake.

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"The magnitude of it was overwhelming last year," Chafee said, and although he expects wind damage, power outages and flooding of a similar scale, he was confident that the response will be better.

Meanwhile, he asked Rhode Islanders to make sure they were prepared -- "get batteries, get gas" -- and stay informed.

"I'm just urging Rhode Islanders to pay attention to the news.  We've all been through this," Chafee said.