Hurricane Dolly made landfall approximately 80 miles south of Corpus Christi, Texas on Wednesday July 23, 2008 between 1 PM and 2 PM, along the unpopulated shoreline of Cameron and Willacy County. Dolly was a Category 2 hurricane at landfall with a minimum central pressure around 967 mb.
Sustained tropical storm force winds spread as far north as the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, with tropical storm force wind gusts impacting nearly the entire Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Plains region. The peak wind gust measured in the Corpus Christi county warning area was 63 MPH at the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) in Alice, Texas. The winds peaked at approximately 60 mph along the barrier island as well from Bob Hall Pier down to Baffin Bay. The gusty winds caused sporadic power outages across the southern Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Plains, primarily between Corpus Christi and Laredo. In addition, sporatic downed trees occurred throughout the region. In Corpus Chrisit, part of the roof of the Memorial Coliseum was torn off by the winds. Two boats, not properly anchored, were also damaged in the Corpus Christi Marina. In Duval County, the roof of a mobile home and V.F.W. Hall were torn off in San Diego from the wind gusts. In Benavides, in addition to tree and power line damage, wind gusts damaged part of a high school football stadium press box.
Although the center of Dolly passed well to our south, her slow forward motion before landfall caused water levels to rise along the Mid Texas Coast. A storm surge of 2.5-3.5 feet MSL was observed along the mid Coast and total storm tides 3-4 feet MSL on North Padre Island shortly after the time of landfall Wednesday Evening. It is also interesting to note that total storm tides peaked at 3-4 feet MSL in the back bays including Nueces Bay and Lavaca Bay.
Isolated tornadoes occurred in the northeast quadrant of Dolly, including one waterspout and three tornadoes in South Texas. Only minor damage was observed. The tornadoes were all rated EF-0, with two occuring in San Paticio County and one in Jim Wells County.
Dolly's slow movement produced torrential rainfall over the mid coast region and Rio Grande Plains. Rainfall totals of 1-2 were observed over northern portions of the region from Victoria to Laredo. Totals of 3-7 were observed generally south of a line from Rockport to Zapata. These heavy rains resulted in flooding of rural low lying roadways including FM 70 near Chapman Ranch in southern Nueces County, FM 628 and 1118 in Kleberg County. Minor street flooding was observed in Jim Wells and Duval Counties. The city of Laredo also experienced street flooding as the center of the circulation passed over the city. The heavy rains had a negative impact on the farmers' ability to harvest the cotton crop. However the rains did end a severe drought which plagued the south Texas region for much of this year. A record rainfall for the dates of July 23rd and 24th occurred at the Corpus Christi International Airport from the rains associated with Dolly.
There were no deaths or injuries reported in the mid coast region from Dolly. Property damage estimates across South Texas were still pending at the time of this writing. The heavy rainfall resulted in a rough estimate of nearly $3.5 million in damage to crops, mainly cotton, however final figures were still pending at the time of this writing.