Hurricane Dolly smacks Texas, flooding now the major concern

The eye of Hurricane Dolly hit Texas around the South Padre Island area at around 2pm local time and was packing sustained winds of 100mph with gusts reaching 120mph at times. The storm peeled off roofs and cut power to thousands as it made it’s way ashore with the worst damage seeming to be on South Padre island itself.

Now pushing inland Dolly is bringing rainfall amounts of up to 12 inches with her and the major concern now is flooding. It seems that the early fears of a storm surge pushing up the Rio Grande and causing major flooding may not materialise luckily but it is worth keeping an eye on Dolly’s progress as she continues ashore.

Edit (24/07/08 8.00am GMT): Dolly is still packing 60mph winds and dumping up to 15 inches of rain on parts of Texas and northern Mexico. Initial damage estimates are emerging. AIR Worldwide estimate the insured losses at anything between $300m and $1.2b (expected mean loss is $600m), that’s all dependent on how much rain falls and how her track fares as she moves further inland. Had Dolly spent longer over the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall it could have been much worse as she would have had more time to strengthen further.