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By admin | September 28, 2008
Hurricane Dolly hammered the Gulf Coast near the U.S.-Mexico border with strong winds and heavy rain Wednesday as it moved toward land. Hurricane Dolly begins to hit the Texas-Mexico border in this radar image from 6:45 a.m. ET Wednesday. Forecasters expect the eye of the storm to come ashore around midday Wednesday in or around Brownsville, Texas, or Matamoros, Mexico. The center of the season’s second hurricane was about 65 miles east-southeast of Brownsville at 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, moving northwest about 8 mph. The hurricane will come ashore around 1 p.m. ET if it continues moving at that rate, according to the National Hurricane Center. Dolly’s maximum sustained winds were around 85 mph, considered a Category 1 hurricane, at 5 a.m. Forecasters warn the storm could strengthen into ategory 2 by the time it reaches land, which means maximum sustained winds of 96 mph to 110 mph. The storm could produce 6 to 10 inches of rain in southern Texas and northern Mexico, with up to 15 inches of rain in some isolated spots, according to the hurricane center. It is likely to produce battering waves and hurricane-force winds up to 25 miles from its center. Hurricane Dolly also could trigger flooding and possibly spawn tornadoes. People in the path of the storm spent Tuesday stacking sandbags, nailing plywood and buying generators as a precaution. Maribel Vallejo of Brownsville waited in line for two hours Tuesday for bags of sand. It’s something we have to do to avoid any flooding going into our homes, she told CNN.iReport.com: Are you in Dolly’s path?Mayor Pat Ahumada said he did not see a need to order evacuations. I think we can weather the storm … just by being vigilant and staying indoors and protecting our property, he said. But several hundred people had taken refuge in shelters in Cameron County, where Brownsville is located, and in Hidalgo County, just to the west, county officials told The Associated Press. Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator Johnny Cavazos told AP that officials were concerned that levees along the Rio Grande might not be able to hold a deluge of water from Dolly. Hidalgo County spokeswoman Cari Lambrecht told AP that people living in low-lying areas were encouraged to come to shelters. It’s so much easier for them to go now instead of us having to pull them out later, she said. A few miles south in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, authorities urged about 23,000 people to leave their homes and ride out the storm in temporary shelters. Buses took scores of people to the shelters Tuesday. Oil company helicopters have spent the last few days ferrying hundreds of workers from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to the mainland. Federal immigration officials also evacuated about 1,000 suspected illegal immigrants from a detention facility near the coast in Port Isabel, Texas, to other jails in the state, said spokeswoman Nina Pruneda of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The National Hurricane Center urged people to hurry and complete work to protect life and property. A hurricane warning remained in effect for the Texas coast from Brownsville to Corpus Christi and for the Mexican coast from Rio San Fernando to the U.S. border. A tropical storm warning was in effect from north of Corpus Christi to San Luis Pass. A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were in effect from La Pesca to south of Rio San Fernando, Mexico. Strong winds started to buffet the coast Tuesday night, and police in Padre Island, Texas closed a bridge to the mainland. It’s not going to be a picnic out on Padre Island, National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read told CNN. On the beach you’re going to have very high winds, storm surge of 5 to 6 feet.
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