Dolly strengthens; hurricane warnings for Texas coastStory Highlights
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SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (CNN) -- Tropical Storm Dolly strengthened Tuesday morning in the western Gulf of Mexico and is expected to become a hurricane before it hits land along the Texas-Mexico border Wednesday, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said.
Michael Gorsline boards up windows Monday at his home in in Corpus Christi, Texas.
1 of 3 At 8 a.m. ET the storm -- with 65 mph winds -- was centered about 265 miles southeast of Brownsville, Texas.
Dolly should be very near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, forecasters said.
"All odds are now that we're looking at Category 1 hurricane on the Texas coast by midday Wednesday," said Bill Read, director of the hurricane center.
A Category 1 hurricane carries sustained winds between 74 mph and 95 mph.iReport.com: Are you ready for hurricane season?
The storm was moving to the west-northwest at near 13 mph, but was expected to gradually turn toward the northwest by Wednesday. Dolly's forward motion was forecast to slow, giving it more time to intensify over the warm Gulf waters. See Dolly's projected path »
A flurry of warnings were issued along the coasts of Texas and Mexico overnight and early Tuesday morning. The center's tracking map shows the storm coming ashore as a hurricane on Wednesday, around the Texas-Mexico border.
Hurricane warnings were in effect along about 200 miles of coastline from Rio San Fernando in Mexico northward to Port O'Connor, Texas. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected in the warning area within the next 24 hours. Watch people preparing as storm approaches »
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Tropical storm warnings stretched south of Rio San Fernando to La Pesca, Mexico and north of Port O'Connor to San Luis Pass, Texas. The region from Rio San Fernando to La Pesca is also under a hurricane watch.
Dolly is expected to produce rainfall of 4 to 8 inches, with isolated amounts of 15 inches over much of south Texas and northeastern Mexico over the next few days, forecasters said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry activated 1,200 National Guard troops and other emergency crews. He ordered 250 buses to stage in San Antonio to be ready to help in evacuations if needed.
Soldiers were being sent into the Mexican border town of Matamoros to protect against looting that might occur if residents have to evacuate, The Associated Press reported.
Shell Oil told the AP it was evacuating workers from oil rigs in the western Gulf of Mexico.
Hotels and businesses in the Texas resort of South Padre Island were beginning to board up their windows as they awaited the storm, CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf reported. Some tourists were cutting their vacations short, he said.
A Navy spokesman said authorities will decide some time Tuesday morning if aircraft based in Corpus Christi, Texas, should be moved further inland because of the storm.
A number of ships taking part in exercises off the mid-Atlantic coast have already been repositioned to avoid Tropical Storm Cristobal, the spokesman said.
Early Tuesday, Cristobal paralleled the Atlantic Seaboard as it slowly began losing steam. See Cristobal's projected path »
At 5 a.m. ET, Cristobal was moving toward the east-northeast near 21 mph, about 485 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and about 450 miles south-southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The storm was packing 60 mph winds, but is expected to weaken over the next 24 hours.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and runs through November
