Winds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) downed signs, peeled roofs off buildings and knocked out power to thousands of homes.

Up to 2 feet (600 mm) of rainfall had occurred in some parts of the lower Rio Grand Valley between Brownsville and Laredo as of Thursday morning.

The slowly moving storm was expected to bring even more rain as it drifts over northern Mexico through the weekend.

Emergency services personnel were dispatched Wednesday night to rescue residents who were becoming trapped by rising waters from Dolly’s torrential rainfall.

Most of the wind damage from the storm occurred on South Padre Island, a beach resort town on a barrier island just off the Texas mainland. Signs and other debris could be seen in television reports from there rolling around the streets like tumbleweeds.

One of the worst injuries due to the storm occurred when a teenage boy fell, or was blown, from a seventh-story balcony as high winds lashed South Padre. He suffered a broken hip, fractured leg and other injuries.

Just across the Rio Grande in northern Mexico, soldiers evacuated residents near the Guf of Mexico as storm surge tides were expected to swamp low-lying homes.

Dolly was the first hurricane to hit the U.S. since Humberto came ashore in South Texas last September. It was also the 26th hurricane known to have made landfall in the U.S. during July since record keeping started in 1851, according to the National Weather Service.

Hurricane Dolly Track

Radar Data: NOAA
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