NWS Reports Extensive Damage in South Padre Island

Posted on July 23, 2008

The National Weather Service out of Brownsville, Texas and South Padre Island, Texas is reporting news of extensive damage. Damage includes downed trees and powerlines and roofs ripped off homes and hotels.

These reports are significant but it may end up being the immense rain totals that end up causing the most damage and loss of life.

At 530 PM CDT, weakening Hurricane Dolly had slowed to a crawl and was centered over western Willacy County. The southwest side of the center continues to produce torrential rains which are quickly adding up from southern and southwestern Willacy County continuing into much of Cameron County, with heavy rains now heading into eastern Hidalgo and southeastern Brooks County. As the night wears on, the locally heavy rains will continue, with an additional 3 to 7 inches possible in these areas and the likelihood of 2 to 5 inches stretching into the western Lower Rio Grande Valley and Rio Grande Plains as Dolly weakens to a tropical storm but continues to spread heavy rains and gusty winds. Minor damage is still possible especially in eastern Hidalgo, Willacy, and Cameron County. Such damage will include more downed tree limbs, power lines, and minor structural damage. Extensive damage reports in Willacy, as well as across eastern Cameron County and especially from Port Isabel to South Padre Island, continue to trickle in. A brief summary of reports so far is listed below.
Considerable freshwater flooding may continue well into the night from eastern Hidalgo through Cameron County, with structures threatened in some areas along with potentially high waters in poor drainage areas with life threatening conditions possible! Residents are urged to remain indoors until conditions begin to improve sometime on Thursday. Significant flooding has been reported in Harlingen as of 530 PM. State Officials reported two feet of water in portions of downtown, with water in homes near Jackson Streeet. Police reported flooding on Polk, Taylor, Pierce, Filmore, and Commerce Streets. Meanwhile, streets in subdivisions on the north side of the city had up to six inches of water covering the ground. Estimated rainfall between 5 and up to 12 inches in Cameron County have caused widespread flooding of poor drainage areas from Brownsville to Port Isabel and South Padre Island. Numerous roads are covered in water, with poor drainage locations impassible.
Extensive damage reports continue to trickle in to the NWS office from South Padre Island. Dozens of roofs have been reported torn off of residences and businesses, and a large amount of debris was noted on roads. Included landmarks were the Radisson Resort, the Holiday Inn, and the Sea Ranch Restaurant. One person was reported sucked out of a doorway on a 7th floor condominium where he fell and was injured. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trees and limbs have been damaged throughout Cameron and Willacy Counties. Extensive property damage has also been reported along State Highway 186 between Raymondville and Port Mansfield, where the southwestern eyewall continued to wreak havoc. Stay tuned for updates later this evening.

The flash flooding problems will persist as Hurricane Dolly is tracking very slowly westward. The Weather Channel's Stu Ostro has a detailed blog post about the storm. He pulled these flood reports from the NWS.

...SEVERE FLOODING REPORTED IN HARLINGEN...
HEAVY AND PERSISTENT SHOWERS...ASSOCIATED WITH THE EYE OF WEAKENING HURRICANE DOLLY...ARE CAUSING MAJOR FLOODING IN THE CITY OF HARLINGEN THIS EVENING.
A TEXAS STATE OFFICIAL REPORTED TWO FEET OF WATER IN PORTIONS OF DOWNTOWN HARLINGEN...WITH WATER IN HOMES IN THE JACKSON STREET AREA. THE HARLINGEN POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED FLOODING ON POLK... TAYLOR...PIERCE...FILMORE...AND COMMERCE.

For more local reports on Hurricane Dolly try the Brownsville Herald, KIII TV, Newschannel 5 and KVEO 23.

Hurricane Dolly was downgraded to Tropical Storm Dolly with the NHC's 10PM CDT advistory. However, the flash flooding problems will continue as Dolly continues to drop copious amounts of rain.

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