Defying Dolly

Dolly delivered her worst, but the hurricane largely spared the Rio Grande Valley the catastrophic damage many had feared.

As area residents slogged through rising floodwaters, idled in darkness without electricity and dug out from their debris-littered lawns Thursday, state and local officials said the region had "dodged a bullet."

Concerns that the Valley's ailing levee system might fail with the onslaught of massive rains proved to be unfounded. No U.S. casualties had been reported by Thursday evening.

And whipping winds could have caused much more destruction had the Category 2 storm not jogged to the north before making landfall Wednesday on Padre Island near the Cameron-Willacy county line, emergency management officials said.

Still, widespread power outages, rising floodwaters and disruption of water service in some areas proved more than enough to deal with for many.

Thousands remained sheltered at refuges in Hidalgo and Cameron counties Thursday evening, crews were working to restore electricity to 182,000 and roads leading into several northern communities remained impassable.

President Bush declared 15 South Texas counties - including Cameron, Willacy, Hidalgo and Starr - a disaster area, making federal funding available for storm recovery.

Gov. Rick Perry, who flew over storm-affected areas Thursday afternoon, predicted it could take up to a week to address Dolly's estimated $750 million worth of damage.

"Texas has shown the nation how to deal with a major weather event," he said. "But this event is not over by any stretch of the imagination."

LANDFALL
Dolly slammed into the Valley's coast just before 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, bringing 100 mph winds and several inches of rain to South Padre Island.

Roofs blew off homes and businesses and power lines fell like matchsticks across the streets. A teenage boy plummeted from a seventh-floor balcony during the early hours of the storm but survived.

While officials had reopened the Queen Isabella Causeway by Thursday, a 9 p.m. curfew remained in place for Island residents, town spokeswoman Melissa Zamora said.

Port Isabel resident Manuel Hinojosa sat in a lawn chair watching his family carry cut-up tree limbs to the curb. He said four to six inches of water had filled the hallways at his workplace during the height of the storm but insisted he had seen worse.

"I was born and raised here. I saw Beulah," he said, referring to the Category 3 hurricane that devastated the region in 1967.

Across the border, floodwaters filled parts of Mexico's coastal communities and began to seep into area shelters. A Matamoros man died from electrocution after walking past a sparking power line. He was the storm's only confirmed casualty.

But by Thursday morning, Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernandez reported that soldiers had been dispatched to protect against looting and power was expected to be restored today.

Brownsville, which had feared a direct hit, received only a glancing blow. And by morning, power and potable water remained the primary concerns. Closer to Harlingen, however, low-lying areas filled with water and debris.

WESTERN TRACK
In Hidalgo County, emergency managers focused recovery efforts in northeastern communities such as Edcouch, Elsa, Monte Alto and La Villa, just south of where Dolly's eye barreled through about 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Residents woke up the next morning to find themselves in waist-deep water and with sewage backing up into toilets. More than 500 people found themselves without access to restrooms for several hours in a storm shelter at Garcia Elementary in Edcouch.

"Mostly the eastern part of the county has a lot of water," Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said Thursday. "But there's other low-lying colonias and neighborhoods across the county with problems, too."

Starr County, though, which found itself under several feet of water during summer storms last year, drew less rain than expected.

"We don't have that backup like we did last year," said Rio Grande City Manager Juan Zuniga. "We're in good shape compared to the rest of the Valley."

RECOVERY EFFORTS
As Dolly blew out of the Valley early Thursday morning, local emergency responders and Texas National Guard troops fanned out across the region to begin recovery efforts.

But their labors were complicated as 9-1-1 and radio systems failed in Hidalgo and Cameron counties.

Cameron County officials rescued about 30 families from high water, and Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies responded to more than 200 calls from people who felt unsafe as flood waters rose in their homes.

"We knew today was going to be by far the busiest and most physical day," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said Thursday. "But by the grace of God, I think we only had one injury."

FLOOD RISK STILL POSSIBLE
Still, state and local officials warned that the region had not completely escaped Dolly-related danger.

As of 4 p.m., the National Weather Service had downgraded the storm to a tropical depression centered 35 miles south of Eagle Pass with 35 mph sustained wind.

Forecasters predicted precipitation in southwestern Texas could pose an additional flooding risk to the Valley as the water flowed back east along the Rio Grande. Water levels continued to rise in some areas Thursday evening as canals and rivers topped their banks.

"Although the sun is starting to shine and it appears troubles are over, you don't have to think back but to Katrina," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said.

"When the skies started to get blue, the flooding began."

Staff writers from The Monitor, The Brownsville Herald, The Valley Morning Star, The Island Breeze, La Frontera, and El Nuevo Heraldo contributed to this report.