Hurricane Dolly storms into Texas near Brownsville

Hurricane Dolly began hammering Texas’ southernmost tip this morning, lashing buildings with violent winds, triggering tornado warnings and leading officials to fear massive flooding and failed levees along the Rio Grande.

Dolly, the first Atlantic hurricane to strike the United States this year, was poised to make landfall near Brownsville on the Texas-Mexico border around noon Central time as a Category 2 hurricane, with winds topping 100 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries.

Emergency officials were confident that the Rio Grande Valley would withstand Dolly’s gusts, which were expected to top 120 mph. But they were concerned that the predicted drumbeat of drenching rains – six to 10 inches in most areas and as much as 15 in pockets – would trigger widespread flooding in a South Texas border region where the population has grown dramatically in recent decades. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated this week that roughly 1.5 million people live in Dolly’s projected path.

“I think the worst is yet to come,” said Carlos Cascos, the county judge for coastal Cameron County, which includes Brownsville. In preparation, emergency officials in Cameron and adjacent Hidalgo County helped residents fill thousands of sandbags – more than 40,000 in the town of Weslaco, pop. 27,000.

The area was flooded in 1967, when Hurricane Beulah came up the mouth of the Rio Grande between Brownsville and the Mexican city of Matamoros, spawning 115 twisters across Texas, killing 58 people and causing more than $1.2 billion in damage.

Beulah was a much stronger storm, briefly reaching Category 5 intensity, but flood control officials nonetheless worry about a similar outcome with Dolly, noting that that Rio Grande levees have been deteriorating for decades and may not hold. Weather officials predicted that the storm would slowly move westward along the Rio Grande, dumping massive amounts of water for days.

“The rainfall rates could be even higher than 15 inches, so flooding is the main concern,” said JJ Brost, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s southern region headquarters in Fort Worth. “But now that this has become a Category 2 hurricane, you certainly have the potential for damage to homes. Anything not tied down is going to become a projectile.”

In Matamoros, Mexican officials evacuated about 22,000 residents from flood-prone neighborhoods on Tuesday. Texas officials did not order mandatory evacuations, saying they would do so only if the storm reached Category 3. But most residents left coastal counties on their own after boarding up homes and businesses, and Gov. Rick Perry activated 600 National Guard. Emergency planners also parked 250 buses in San Antonio, just in case.

Texas officials closed the two-mile-long Queen Isabella Memorial Bridge connecting Port Isabel to South Padre Island about 10 Tuesday night. But many people remained on the thin barrier island, a popular tourist destination, despite warnings that a storm surge of four to six feet could wash over it.

“I’m very scared. This is my first hurricane and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Alina Berejhece, 21, a native of Moldova in Eastern Europe, said this morning. She was working as a front desk clerk at the Radisson Resort South Padre Island hotel, where most guests had fled the 192 beachfront rooms and condos. “It’s very windy and rainy, but so far everything is in one piece.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials evacuated nearly 800 detainees from the Port Isabel Detention Center outside the town of Los Fresnos. They were also preparing in case they needed to evacuate the Willacy County Detention Center in Raymondville, which holds 2,000 inmates.

Hundreds of residents crammed big-box retailers in the 24 hours before the storm, buying last-second supplies such as water and gasoline tanks, and thousands flocked to shelters set up at high schools. Many waited to seek shelter until the hurricane was bearing down, forcing emergency officials to open new buildings.

More than 29,000 people were without power in Cameron and Hidalgo counties by early today, about 15% of those served by American Electric Power in the area, according to the utility. Emergency officials expected widespread disruptions throughout the day.

 miguel.bustillo@latimes.com