Massive flooding feared as Hurricane Dolly hits Texas

About two hours later, with winds slowed to 95 mph, Dolly was downgraded to a Category 1. But it continued blanketing a vast swath of the Rio Grande Valley with torrential rains. Hours later it was downgraded to a tropical storm.

South Texas was rife with reports of flooded roads, downed power lines and damaged buildings. The main highway linking McAllen to Brownsville was littered with downed palms and fallen marquees. The roofs of several businesses looked as if they had been peeled back with giant can openers.

But there were no immediate reports of deaths and few reports of major injuries. More than 100,000 people were without power in South Texas by Wednesday evening, according to American Electric Power, and officials said repairs could take days.

It appeared that, flooding fears aside, Texas had escaped the kind of destruction that occurred in Louisiana and Mississippi with Hurricane Katrina nearly three years ago.

Emergency officials were confident that the Rio Grande Valley would withstand Dolly's gusts, which decreased as the storm moved inland. But they expressed concern that drenching rains -- 8 to 12 inches were expected in most areas and as much as 20 inches in some pockets -- could trigger widespread flooding.

"I think the worst is yet to come," said Carlos Cascos, the judge for coastal Cameron County, which includes Brownsville. In preparation, emergency officials in Cameron County and adjacent Hidalgo County helped residents fill thousands of sandbags -- more than 40,000 in the town of Weslaco, population 27,000.

The area flooded in 1967, when Hurricane Beulah came up the mouth of the Rio Grande between Brownsville and the Mexican city of Matamoros, spawning 115 twisters across Texas, killing 58 people and causing more than $1.2 billion in damage.

Beulah was a stronger storm, reaching Category 5 intensity. But flood control officials still were worried about a similar outcome with Dolly, noting that the levees on the Rio Grande have been deteriorating for decades and might not hold.

After making landfall, the storm trudged through South Texas, moving west at 6 or 7 mph. That intensified fears that it would dump massive amounts of water on the region for days. By Wednesday evening, Dolly had deposited more than 6 inches on Brownsville.

"The rainfall rates could be even higher than 15 inches, so flooding is the main concern," said J.J. Brost, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's southern-region headquarters in Fort Worth.

Alarmed by the strengthening winds and sheets of rain as Dolly approached, many in Brownsville sought shelter in government buildings, away from low-lying neighborhoods and resacas, former bends of the twisting Rio Grande that had turned into lakes and lagoons.

"We live in a trailer, and it just didn't seem sturdy enough," Maria de Rosario Alvarez, 21, said in Spanish as she cradled her 2-year-old daughter, Deseret, at Brownsville's Gladys Porter High School. They were sitting in a hallway, Deseret clad in pajamas decorated with purple penguins. "When we saw things flying, we knew it was time to leave," Alvarez said.

Some South Texans, however, were not fearful of flying debris -- or much else.

In the heart of South Padre Island, the Coral Reef Lounge held a "One-Eyed Dolly Party" for souls interested in sticking it out and drinking while they watched nature's spectacle. About a dozen people showed up Wednesday morning, said owner Chris Kobel, proudly claiming that his was the only bar open.

"This is the spot," said Kobel, 76, who has lived on the island for 21 years. "A piece of my back roof blew off. We can see daylight. It's a little damp in here. But I would not miss this for the world. This is the best storm yet."

Hidalgo County is considered the weak link in the Rio Grande levee system, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission.

If the system comes close to reaching its limit upstream at Rio Grande City, Spener said, some of the river's flow would be diverted into backup channels in Mexico and the U.S. under international agreements. That would take pressure off the river's lower portion.

"We have done studies of our levee systems, which modeled what would happen if a 100-year flood went through," Spener said, "and there are some segments in Hidalgo County that would be topped."