Galveston County Office of Emergency Management

SITUATION REPORT #2

SUBJECT: Tropical Storm Dolly

DATE AND TIME COVERED: Monday, July 21, at 12:00 pm through Tuesday, July 22, 2008

●  CURRENT SITUATION:

Tropical Storm Dolly continued in a west to northwesterly direction and the forecasted landfall location continues to be the South Texas coast.  Currently Dolly is nearing hurricane strength.  A Hurricane Warning is now in effect for the Coast of Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Christi.  A Tropical Storm Warning is now in effect from Corpus Christi to San Luis Pass.  Landfall of the center of the storm is anticipated for late Wednesday.

For our area, some of the outer rain bands of Dolly have started to come ashore in Galveston.  Locally, one half to one inch of rain is forecast over a widespread area south of the I-10 corridor.  On Wednesday, an additional 1 to 3 inches of rainfall is possible.  The National Weather Service has issued a Coastal Flooding Advisory for Galveston County until early Thursday morning.  Northeast winds will increase this morning then become easterly this afternoon and then southeasterly Wednesday.  As the easterly winds increase in strength this afternoon, tide levels will rise slowly.  Tide levels may approach 3 to 4 feet tonight and during the high tide on Wednesday morning.  Areas along West Bay and the Gulf facing beaches will likely experience the higher levels of beach flooding and inundation.  As large swells move into the region, expect widespread beach flooding and erosion of dunes along the ocean facing beaches.

At 10:00 AM CDT, the center of Tropical Storm Dolly was located near latitude 24.0 north, longitude 94.5 west.  Dolly is moving toward the northwest near 12 mph.  A general northwest to west-northwest track is expected during the next 24 hours.  This motion would bring the core of Dolly near northeastern Mexico or extreme southern Texas on Wednesday.  Dolly is expected to become a hurricane later today or Wednesday. 

The next advisory will be issued by the National Hurricane Center at 4:00 pm CDT.

●  AREAS AFFECTED BY THIS EVENT:  Areas along the West Bay and the Gulf facing beaches will likely experience the higher levels of beach flooding and inundation.  As large swells move into the region, expect widespread beach flooding and erosion of dunes along the ocean facing beaches. 

● RESPONDING OFFICES/DEPARTMENTS, RESOURCES COMMITTED: Galveston County staff is monitoring the situation closely.

●  CASUALTIES:  None.

●  DAMAGES:  None reported.

●  EVACUATION:  None. 

●  SHELTER:   None.

●  ROADS CURRENTLY CLOSED/IMPACTED:  None at this time.

●  CURRENT UTILITY OUTAGES:  None.

● COMMENTS: The Emergency Management Division is closely monitoring this situation.  Conference calls are being conducted with the National Weather Service, State of Texas Operations Center and our regional partners. 

We remain at Level 3.

  The four (4) levels of EOC activation are:

   Level 1 (Emergency Conditions)
   Level 2 (Escalated Response Conditions)
   Level 3 (Increased Readiness Conditions)
   Level 4 (Normal Conditions)