By Chris Baltimore
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hurricane Dolly strengthened onWednesday as it neared southern Texas, and was expected to lashlow-lying areas on the U.S.-Mexico border with winds of 100 mph(160 kph) and torrential rain when it comes ashore aroundmid-day.
The second hurricane of 2008 Atlantic storm season gatheredstrength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The stormwas now a Category 2 hurricane, the second level on thefive-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
At 11 a.m. EDT (4 p.m. British time), Dolly was about 30miles (50 km) east-northeast of the border town of Brownsville,Texas, where it was due to come ashore by mid-day. The stormwas moving at about 7 mph (11 kph) toward shore, with the calmeye of the storm expected to cross the coastline in a fewhours.
The storm's predicted landfall and strength were unlikelyto threaten offshore drilling rigs and production platforms inthe Gulf of Mexico. U.S. crude oil prices hit 6-week lows onTuesday and fell further on Wednesday to below $126 a barrel.
The hurricane centre issued a hurricane warning for thesouthern Texas coast as far north as Corpus Christi.
Category 3 to 5 storms are considered the most dangerousbut a Category 2 hurricane is still capable of causing damageto poorly built dwellings such as mobile homes.
The seaport serving Corpus Christi, a major U.S. oilrefining centre, was closed to ship traffic as a precaution.
The NHC said Dolly could dump 15 inches (38 cm) of rain onlow-lying areas in South Texas and northeastern Mexico incoming days.
That has spurred concerns that torrential rains couldovercome levees holding back the Rio Grande River and causewidespread flooding.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry put 1,200 National Guard troops onalert and issued a disaster declaration for 14 low-lyingcounties. State officials said they would not order mandatoryevacuations unless Dolly reached Category 3, with wind speedsof over 111 mph (178 kph).
Some 250 buses stood by in the inland city of San Antonioto evacuate coastal residents if needed.
FLOODING IS MAJOR CONCERN
In Cameron County near the Mexico border, officialsexpected up to 20 inches (51 cm) of rain. "That's going to do anumber on our county," said Johnny Cavazos, the county'semergency management coordinator.
Levees holding back the Rio Grande could fail if Dollydrives a surge of water from the mouth of the river inland,Cavazos said.
The levees held under similar conditions during HurricaneBeulah in 1967, but have "seriously deteriorated" since then,he said.
Texas State Police Captain Joe Gonzalez, who heads thecombined emergency management system in Brownsville, said hewas confident the levees would hold.
A platoon of Texas National Guard troops had deployed tothe populous, flood-prone Rio Grande Valley, Gonzalez said.
Officials late on Tuesday closed a causeway connectingBrownsville with the barrier island resort of South PadreIsland. Many residents had already left.
In the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border fromBrownsville, police and military vehicles patrolled mostlydeserted streets.
Authorities evacuated 23,000 people, but some werereluctant to leave, fearing looters.
"I didn't want to leave because I have been living in thesame place for 40 years and I know what this is about," saidArturo Gutierrez, 55, a fisherman from the village of Chichonalwho finally agreed to leave. "I am now going to the shelterbecause my wife forced me to."
The United States largely escaped the past two Atlantichurricane seasons after being pummelled in 2004 and 2005, whena series of powerful hurricanes, including the catastrophicKatrina, ravaged Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season is already a month aheadof schedule. On average, the fourth tropical storm of thesix-month season does not occur until August 29. Dolly, thisyear's fourth, formed on July 20.
(Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio,Michael Christie in Miami, Tomas Bravo in Matamoros, Mexico,and Mariano Castillo in Mexico City, editing by Alan Elsner andFrances Kerry)
(For latest U.S. National Hurricane Centre reports, seehttp://www.nhc.noaa.gov/)
