 Flooding feared from Hurricane Dolly
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-25 07:32
After Hurricane Dolly unleashed a fury of damaging winds and wicked rain on the US-Mexico coastline and diminished to a tropical storm, widespread flooding along the populous Rio Grande Valley became the top concern yesterday. Dolly, the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season to make landfall, dumped up to 30 cm of rain in the first few hours after coming ashore at the barrier island of South Padre Island, where it ripped off roofs, snapped trees and left about 155,000 residents without power across the region. Residents emerged from their homes and shelters to walk through streets littered with debris, toppled street lights and downed power poles. "Everything is gone. Everything got wet," said Amber Acevado, who runs a flooring store on South Padre Island. "You stand here inside the store, you can see right through to the outside." Dolly was downgraded to a tropical storm late on Wednesday and remained at that strength early yesterday as it moved inland, dumping enormous amounts of rain on South Texas and northeast Mexico and with sustained winds of 80 kmh. It will likely weaken further to a tropical depression later yesterday. Even in its diminished state, Dolly was a menace. The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Dolly could produce total rainfall accumulation of up to 30 cm and up to 51 cm in some places. "These rains are very likely to cause widespread flooding," the center said in a report. The full effect of the flooding might not be seen for days as rain dumped by Dolly's inland march flows into the Rio Grande Valley, home to more than 1 million people. Agencies (China Daily 07/25/2008 page12) |
