Hurricane Dolly bears down on Mexico and Texas coast

Jul 23, 2008, 10:17 GMT

Washington/Mexico City - People along the Mexico-Texas coast prepared for the worst on Wednesday as Hurricane Dolly bore down on the region.

The second hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season was expected to hit land on Wednesday afternoon, bringing heavy rain and winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour.

The northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas began evacuating people after Dolly shifted its path northward from the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday.

Some 23,000 people were moved from their homes and hundreds of troops were sent to the state where heavy rain, flooding and overflowing rivers had already damaged property.

Texas mobilized 1,200 and National Guard members after a hurricane watch was declared for part of the coast south of Corpus Christi.

Many people barricaded their homes as a precaution against rising water levels, while others left for safer areas. Radio and television issued hourly situation reports and gave details of emergency plans.

Meteorologists fear that low-lying coastal areas could be flooded and warned that inland regions might also be affected in the coming days.

Mexico is also being pummelled by Tropical Storm Genevieve, which is moving in a westerly direction along the Mexican coast bringing heavy rainfall in the southern states of Guerrero, Michoacan and Colima.

The hurricane season in the Atlantic officially lasts from June 1 to November 30, and experts were expecting 15-20 storms over this period.