Dolly's Eye on South Padre Island
Slow moving storm now Category 1 with 95 MPH winds.
July 23, 2008 — -- Hurricane Dolly, recently downgraded from a Category 2 to a Category 1 storm, has officially made landfall near South Padre Island, Texas, the National Hurricane Center reports.
Dolly slowed as its 15-mile-wide eye neared the Texas coast early this morning. The storm's outer bands brought rain and the threat of flooding to cities and towns straddling the Texas-Mexico border.
According to a press release, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has already issued disaster declarations for 14 counties in southern Texas.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up an "initial" base of operations in Austin, according to the Texas State Operations Center.
Up to 15 inches of rain are expected for some areas and flooding along the coast and the Rio Grande River has become a major concern, and forecasters say there could be more rain if Dolly continues to slow down.
Over a thousand National Guard troops have been called in case the levees along the river are toppled in the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley.
"The levees are not going to hold that much water," Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator Johnny Cavazos told The Associated Press.
Along the coast, the tide in some places is expected to surge to up to seven feet higher than normal in some places as the slow-moving storm creeps thunderously toward mainland Texas.
Thousands of residents have already been evacuated to storm shelters in various counties. According to Charles Hoskins, deputy emergency management officer for Cameron County, there are nearly 2,000 people already spread throughout the six shelters in the county.
Dolly, which was upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Tuesday afternoon, is the fourth named storm since hurricane season started two months ago.
A hurricane warning is in effect for the coast of Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Cristi and in Mexico from Rio San Fernando northward.
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