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Levees hold but waters rise in Dolly's rains

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

Published: Jul 24, 2008

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.

Dolly had weakened to a tropical storm by 10 p.m. CDT Wednesday 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 1 a.m. Thursday, the tropical storm was centered about 75 miles northwest of Brownsville with maximum sustained winds that had dropped to about 60 mph. More

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