Hurricane Dolly: July 23 2008

Posted by Maureen K. Fleury Jul 23, 2008

So far, there have only been four named storms this season and two have reached hurricane status:

• Tropical Storm ARTHUR
• Hurricane BERTHA
• Tropical Storm CRISTOBAL
• Hurricane DOLLY

Bertha skimmed the coast of Bermuda, but was not a direct hit and then dissipated over the Atlantic.

On July 23, 2008 Hurricane Dolly made landfall on South Padre Island Texas as a Category 2 storm at 1 p.m. local time. Sustained winds were clocked at 100 mph when Dolly came ashore. It quickly downgraded to Category 1 after it made its way inland.

Luckily, Dolly steered south of most of the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, which are off the East Texas and Louisiana shores. There was anticipation this week of rising gas prices if the rigs were hit. For safety reasons, the rigs were evacuated.

Another concern was the levees that hold back the Rio Grande could fail and cause massive flooding. Thankfully, Dolly meandered 35 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border just before coming ashore.

At the time of writing, not all the damage reports are in. So far, on South Padre Island, an apartment complex roof partially collapsed and power was knocked out. Power was knocked out to more than 13,000 customers in Cameron County, where Brownsville is located. There were 11 power poles downed near the Port of Brownsville and transformers were popping downtown.

On CNN, there was a report of a person who fell off the 7th floor of a building and he has minor injuries.

The southern tip of Texas is fortunate in that it lacks much commercial development on the coast, which is largely occupied by Padre Island National Seashore. Both Brownsville and Matamoros sit about 20 miles inland which is far enough to avoid the storm surge.