WESTPORT, Mass. (AP) – Hurricane Alex is creating dangerous rip currents along New England’s coast.

At Horseneck Beach in Westport, cherry red flags flapped from lifeguard stands, warning swimmers of the potential danger.

Approximately 95 percent of rescues at Horseneck are a result of rip currents – narrow strips of fast-moving water that flow perpendicular to the beach, head lifeguard Bob Fitton told the Standard Times of New Bedford.

Water stacks up between sandbars and the shoreline, and when the sandbar breaks, the water rushes out to sea, carrying swimmers out as far as 50 to 100 yards.

“I’ve seen people in water up to their knees do a face plant and get sucked out, and when you get there, they are panic-stricken,” lifeguard Paul Bedard said.

If caught in a rip current, Fitton said, a swimmer should swim parallel to the beach until out of the rip current, and then swim back toward shore.