CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AFP) — Hurricane Dolly gained force in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday as it headed for the US-Mexico border, forcing thousands to flee as US oil rigs put staff ashore.
The category one hurricane was expected to make landfall "around midday," and could intensify to a category two as it reaches the coastline, the National Hurricane Center said.
Bracing for as many as 38 centimeters (15 inches) of rain in some areas, residents boarded up windows and piled up sandbags, as authorities warned that some levees may not be able to sustain the swelling waters.
Texas Governor Rick Perry issued disaster declarations in 14 counties across the southern portion of the state, and hundreds of National Guard troops and other emergency crews were deployed in advance of the storm.
Packing higher sustained winds of 155 kilometers (95 miles) per hour, the hurricane was about 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of the Texas border town of Brownsville at 1300 GMT, the NHC said.
Lashing rains and high gusts battered the coast as the storm moved to the northwest at 13 kph (eight mph).
The hurricane warning applied to the coast of Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Christi and for the northeastern coast of Mexico from Rio San Fernando northward to the US border.
"It's not going to be a picnic on Padre Island," NHC director Bill Read told CNN, referring to the long, narrow barrier island along the Texas coast that is dotted with resort communities.
The first hurricane of the season in the gulf prompted some oil companies to evacuate personnel from their offshore rigs, but by early Wednesday the storm looked set to bypass the major oil producing areas in the Gulf.
However, concerns were raised about the ability of levees to withstand the floodwaters, which could go as high as three feet (one meter) in southern Texas's Cameron County, officials told the local Brownsville Herald.
"I ask that any residents that live near the levee in Cameron County to please move away from the river levees near the Rio Grande River. We believe those will be breached if the path continues," said Johnny Cavazos, emergency management coordinator for the county.
Authorities called for the evacuation of more than 23,000 people from coastal areas in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Governor Eugenio Hernandez said, adding that he had requested the federal government to declare a state of emergency in his jurisdiction.
A category one storm is the lowest rating in the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, but the center predicted 15 to 38 centimeters (six to 15 inches) of rain accumulation over south Texas and northeast Mexico in the coming days.
Isolated areas were expected to see as many as 38 centimeters (15 inches) of rain along with massive waves and flooding at the point of impact, the NHC said.
"Coastal storm surge flooding of four to six feet (1.2 to 1.8 meters) above normal tide levels along with large and dangerous battering waves can be expected near and to the north of where the center makes landfall," it added.
The NHC has forecast an especially active 2008 weather season, saying there could be up to nine hurricanes and 12 tropical storms in the Atlantic region. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through the end of November.
About 35 million people live in the most hurricane-prone US region, the southeastern coastline running from the states of North Carolina to Texas, according to the US Census Bureau.
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