Dolly dwindles - chance of floods and tropical storms remain

2008-07-29 04:20:54 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Weather)

Brownsville, Texas (WiredPRNews.com) — The weather department has reported the death of one person as steamy depression Dolly cast off rain over Mexico and Texas on Friday, July 25th after having stroked the coast in the form of a hurricane resulting in terrible floods.

The first hurricane this year which hit the Gulf of Mexico was reported to have shattered windows, split rooftops, toppled power lines and trees and caused millions of dollars in estimated damage.

Bill Bryan, the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Energy, told CNN that 236,000 people resided in the region that was hit as a result of the storm just above the Mexican border. Life was at a standstill without power, and he added that roughly around 3,000 people were staying in temporary shelters.

Andy Heines, the spokesman from American Electric Power, told The Brownsville Herald that the outrage caused by the hurricane has topped expectations over the American side.

Officials said that Dolly caused wide spread flooding in the bordering city of Matamoros in the northeast section of Mexico. It has been reported that in the city, thousands of people lack drinking water and electricity. One person was fatally electrocuted.

Dolly’s winds have been reported to have damaged the major water treatment plant in Nuevo Laredo; at the same time leaving around half of the 500,000 inhabitants without drinking water.

It was recorded by the American National Hurricane Center that the hurricane’s sustained wind blows deflated to 32 kilometers per hour (20 miles per hour) by 0900 GMT, several hours after it downgraded to a stifling depression.

The NHC has come up with the forecast of 2008 as an especially active weather season, saying that there could come up around twelve tropical depressions and nine hurricanes in the Atlantic region.