Dolly Drenches South Texas But Levees Hold

Hurricane Dolly slammed ashore and then loitered over deep south Texas as a tropical storm, dumping as much as a foot of rain in places and ripping roofs off buildings with 100 mph winds.

Emergency managers waited for Dolly to move on late into the night Wednesday and hoped to begin assessing the storm's damage Thursday even as they began to rescue people from flooded or damaged homes.

"We really didn't have an opportunity to assess it yesterday because during the daylight hours we were basically in the height of the storm," South Padre Emergency Manager Dan Quandt told CBS News Early Show meteorologist Dave Price. "We couldn't put emergency personnel out to assess things. The sun started to go down and we didn't get much of a chance to see what the damage was."

Dolly had weakened to a tropical storm by Wednesday night after hitting South Padre Island around midday as a Category 2 hurricane. But the storm drenched south Texas as it crept westward at an excruciating 7 mph into the evening. The National Weather Service expected Dolly to weaken to a tropical depression, turn to the northwest and accelerate slightly Thursday.

By 4:00 a.m. Eastern Thursday, the tropical storm was centered about 95 miles northwest of Brownsville with maximum sustained winds that had dropped to about 60 mph.

Still, the danger had not passed as power lines hung across streets and water surrounded neighborhoods.

"Unless it's life or death," Tony Pena, Hidalgo County emergency management coordinator, urged residents to stay at home.

Price reports that more than 140,000 people spent the night with no power.

While the rain set records in Brownsville's Cameron County - ranging from six to 12 inches with another three to seven inches expected overnight - they did not appear to pose the threat to the Rio Grande's levees that had been feared.

The river rose steadily through the day in Brownsville, but did not reach flood stage.

"We're not experiencing any issues with the levees right now," Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission, said late Wednesday. "The water is just not high enough."

The torrential rains and fierce winds that lasted much of the day in south Texas caught many by surprise.

Quandt told Price that Dolly's initial fierceness posed challenges.

"It's amazing how much a few degrees and a few miles per hour make. This has been much stronger than we thought going in," Quandt said.

By Wednesday afternoon, the community of Laureles north of Los Fresnos had been reduced to a chain of sunken islands, separated from the main roads by floodwaters of two feet or more in places.

More than 5,000 people moved to public shelters in the three hardest-hit counties and the numbers were expected to grow Thursday as more people became stranded by floodwaters.

In Hidalgo County, Pena said there were several incidents late Wednesday requiring emergency personnel to rescue people from homes.

One family was left huddling in their topless house after winds blew the roof off in the northeast part of the county until rescuers arrived, Pena said. In Cameron County, sheriff's deputies rescued a family of eight from Los Fresnos after floodwaters surrounded their home.

The only serious injury reported Wednesday occurred when the wind knocked a 17-year-old boy from a seventh-story balcony on South Padre Island. The boy suffered a broken hip, leg and a head injury but could not be transported off the island until about 5 p.m. The causeway linking the island to the mainland reopened to the public at 8:30 p.m., said Melissa Zamora, an emergency management spokeswoman on the island.

The island sustained some of the storm's heaviest damage and was still without power Wednesday night. Roofs were torn off hotels and homes, there was significant flooding that had begun to subside and debris was everywhere. A curfew was imposed for 8 p.m., Zamora said.

No deaths were immediately reported in Mexico, but Tamaulipas state Gov. Eugenio Hernandez said 50 neighborhoods were still in danger from flooding. About 13,000 people had taken refuge in 21 shelters, he said.

Many Texans heading north were stopped at inland Border Patrol checkpoints, where agents opened extra lanes to ease traffic flow while still checking documentation and arresting illegal immigrants, said sector spokesman Dan Doty. At one checkpoint on U.S. 77, smugglers were caught with nearly 10,000 pounds of marijuana.

The U.S. Census Bureau said that based on Dolly's projected path, about 1.5 million Texans could feel the storm's effects. Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared 14 south Texas counties disaster areas and sought federal disaster declarations.

Perry was scheduled to fly over the region Thursday.