Dolly downgraded to Category 1; As residents in the Valley hunker down and National Guard troops mobilize, some officials think heavy rainfall will likely be worst of storm

By LYNN BREZOSKY and SEAN MATTSON
The Houston Chronicle
 National Hurricane Center
Some oil, gas production shut in by Dolly

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Hurricane Dolly ripped into South Texas early this afternoon with hard rains and sustained winds approaching 100 mph, tearing roofs off houses and hotels and downing power lines.

On South Padre Island, an injured 17-year-old man who fell from a seventh floor balcony of the Lighthouse Harbor Condominum was stuck on the island with a fractured hip, other broken bones and head injuries as paramedics waited for a pause in the winds to get him across the causeway to a hospital, officials said.

A hotel sign lies on the ground after being blown over by high winds as Hurricane Dolly makes landfall, Wednesday, in South Padre Island, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The storm took the roofs off the Bahia Mar, a 10-story hotel resort, and the Palmetto Inn, a two-story restaurant, said Dan Quandt, spokesman for the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"This is a big storm. The hurricane force winds go out 25 miles in every direction," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, as the center approached the coast.

But after making landfall at South Padre at 2 p.m., the storm quickly began to lose power.

"It’s all downhill from here. It wasn’t a Category 2 for very long. About four hours," said Ryan Husted, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in New Braunfels.

"It will break up as a horrific rainmaker. Total rain accumulations will be from 6 to 10 inches, with up to 15 inches in isolated areas. Obviously that much rain that fast will produce widespread flooding," Feltgen predicted.

Dora and Ernesto Guevara watches as storm surge from Hurricane Dolly washes up on Whitecap Drive in Padre Island, Corpus Christi, Texas Tuesday. (AP PHOTO/Corpus Christi Caller-Times,Todd Yates)

Gov. Rick Perry, who today added Starr County to a list of 14 counties he named as disaster areas Tuesday, said he would soon ask President George W. Bush for a presidential disaster declaration to speed up relief to the region.

Dolly’s impending arrival closed the causeway to South Padre Island and most schools and public buildings, caused more than 10,000 people to lose power, and more than 3,000 people to shelters in Texas, and many times that number in Matamoros, Mexico as the storm approached.

By late this morning, some people were being turned away from shelters that had run out of room.

"They said they were full. We have to go to another high school," said Lupe Sepulveda, who had arrived in driving rain at Hanna High School in Brownsville with his wife and a carload of kids.

An official said the shelter, designed to hold 800 people, had no more room.

By noon, with the weather making travel hazardous, Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator Johnny Cavazos said the chance for people to take shelter had largely passed.

"It's getting to the zero hour right now," he said shortly before the storm made landfall.

"The No. 1 one concern is for people not to be out on the roads. I know it's very tempting to go out and see what kind of damage it's doing, but please stay at home."

Cavazos said the Valley's counties and cities had stockpiled water, food, and supplies in the event of extended power outages after the storm.

"We planned for this, we drilled for this, and so far it has worked out very, very well," he said.

In Hidalgo County, where more than 1,000 people found safety in six shelters, Maribel Garnica, 33, and her four children were among 111 evacuees at a shelter run by the Salvation Army.

It was the family’s first hurricane and as the rains had grown stronger through the morning, Garnica said everyone was feeling a little fearful.

"I live in a tiny house and it floods in a regular rainstorm," Garnica, of Donna, said.

So here she was, wrapped in a bright pink blanket on the floor of the crowded chapel, the contents of her wallet scattered around her, as the movie “Transformer” played on an oversized screen in front of them.

Senior hurricane specialist Lixion Avila charts the path of Hurricane Dolly Wednesday, at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

"Normally, we get on top of the bed when it floods. This is better than getting wet," her daughter, Susana, 17, said brightly.

Salvation Army Maj. Dan Ford, who is leading the organization’s disaster response team, said, "People have been coming steady (to the shelter) all day. Family after family."

Paula de Leon, 48, fled a small apartment with a "not so great roof" Tuesday night and arrived at the shelter with her two teenage kids and a change of clothes.

Though the family slept on mats, she wasn’t complaining. "They gave us soap and shampoo and fed us breakfast," she said.

In Starr County, west of McAllen, officials plan to open two shelters to handle evacuees fleeing west along U.S. 83, said Gene Falcon, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

Shelters were to open by 3 p.m. with one in Rio Grande City and another in La Grulla, said Starr County Clerk Dennis Gonzalez. A third shelter may be opened in Roma depending on weather conditions and the number of evacuees, he added.

In Willacy County, north of Brownsville, U.S. 77 remained open, though hazardous in the severe weather, said Frank Torres, that county’s emergency management coordinator.

"But we would recommend that nobody gets on it at this time because it is not drivable due to wind conditions,” Torres said. “At this point, we’re not moving anybody.

"We're hunkered down until the storm goes through. It's no longer safe to send rescue personnel out into the elements."

He said the storm had caused widespread power outages and damaged roofs near the coast.

An estimated 80 to 100 people are taking refuge in shelters at Raymondville High School and Lasara Elementary School. At another shelter, county personnel were working to restore power to the high school’s gym with generators after a recent power outage.

Dolly hit the heavily populated Brownsville and Matamoros, Mexico area and was forecast to arrive in McAllen early this evening.

Plenty of people had stayed on South Padre despite storm warnings.

"We’re almost at full capacity," Felicia Newton, the front desk clerk at the South Padre Hotel, said this morning. "We have renters and people with time shares and (media). We were all expecting it to pass away from us."

Those in lower-lying areas had other worries. Most troubling was the prospect that storm surges could test the aging system of levees along the Rio Grande, although it would take a lot of flooding to breach them, said Hidalgo County spokeswoman Cari Lambrecht.

In Cameron County, officials were less anxious about the levees. Even though the Cavazos said NWS officials had predicted 15 to 20 inches of rainfall, he said they had assured the county that "even in the worst case scenario they didn't think it would be enough for the river to overflow its banks. ... That was sort of a relief for us."

The state has activated 1,200 National Guard troops in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas, and staged up to 250 school buses in San Antonio. Helicopters and water rescue teams will also be available, as will three shelters at schools in San Antonio.

The disaster declaration Perry issued Tuesday cited the "imminent threat" posed by the storm and allows the state to deploy resources requested by local officials. Besides Starr, counties were Aransas, Bexar, Brooks, Calhoun, Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Victoria and Willacy.

Despite earlier forecasts for a Category 1 hurricane, Perry said the state was prepared for a Category 2 storm, which Dolly became shortly before striking the coast.

These hurricanes can be highly unpredictable," he said. "We prepare for the worst and pray for the best."

Perry said six helicopters, 50 high-profile National Guard trucks and almost 50 Parks and Wildlife Department boats were already in position, ready for rescue efforts and other chores, when Dolly came ashore.

He said the rescue teams were combing low-lying areas, including the poverty-stricken border colonias, as the storm was still raging.

He said his message to storm victims was: "Help is on the way, if it's not already there in their neighborhoods."

Contributing to this report were Express-News Staff Writer James Sanborn in San Antonio, and Houston Chronicle Staff Writer Clay Robison in Austin.