Hurricane Dolly churns inland from Mexico, Texas coast (2nd Roundup)

Jul 23, 2008, 21:39 GMT

Washington - After making landfall on South Padre Island Hurricane Dolly Wednesday afternoon has strafed the Mexico-Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico with 160 kilometre-per-hour winds.

Televised reports of the storm showed considerable damage to property due to high winds and heavy rain ripping across the coast.

Thousands of people have fled their homes both in Mexico and the US in search of shelter as the second hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season has been to thrashing coastal communities with heavy rain and high winds.

The hurricane began moving inland over southern Texas and a hurricane warning remained in effect for the coast of Texas from Brownsville to just south of Baffin Bay and for the northeastern coast of Mexico from Rio San Fernando northward to the border between Mexico and the United States.

The hurricane warning from Baffin Bay northward to neighboring Corpus Christi has been replaced by a tropical storm warning. A tropical storm warning remains in effect from Baffin Bay to Port O'Connor.

The eye of the hurricane was located about 80 kilometres north of Brownsville Wednesday afternoon and moving northwest at about 13 kiloimetres per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Center. The storm is expected to make a gradual turn to the west-northwest in the next day pushing the hurricane further inland over southern Texas.

Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 140 kilometres per hour with higher gusts. Dolly was reduced to a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and further weakening was forecast for the next 24 hour period.

Hurricane force winds extended outward up to 55 kilometres from the center of the storm the hurricane center said. Tropical storm winds extended outward up to 220 kilometres per hour.

Hurricane Dolly is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 20 to 28 centimetres with isolated areas getting as much as 50 centimetres in south Texas and northeastern Mexico over the next few days, which is likely to cause widespread flooding across the region.

Also expected is coastal storm surge flooding about two metres above normal tide levels and dangerous large waves battering the coast into the evening. Isolated tornadoes were possible over portions of south Texas for the remainder of Wednesday.

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