Hurricane Dolly Slams Texas Coast

As the Gulf Coast starts to feel Hurricane Dollly's fury, the National Hurricane Center has a message it has repeatedly been sending the nation:

"Become familiar with what hurricanes can do, and when a hurricane threatens your area, increase your chances of survival by moving away from the water until the hurricane has passed! Unless this message is clearly understood by coastal residents through a thorough and continuing preparedness effort, disastrous loss of life is inevitable in the future."

Hurricane Dolly is headed for what Fox News calls "the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley" not far from Houston.

Citing census studies, the National Hurricane Center has an ever growing concern for vulnerable coastal areas of the U.S.. 50 million people have moved into these areas in the past 25 years and the experience gained from 7 major hurricanes during the past 3 years has not lessened their concern. What the National Weather Service's Hurricane Preparedness officials worry about the most is that people will think that no large loss of life will happen in a hurricane because of our advanced technology and forecasting abilities.

That bureau still emphasizes that catastrophic loss of life can occur in vulnerable areas if there are not proper preparedness plans formed, in place and well executed. In the case of Hurricane Dolly those concerns include heavy flooding, levees that may not hold, and evacuating thousands from threatened areas.

The National Hurricane Center keeps statistical information on deaths and damages occurred during hurricanes affecting the United States. The two most frequent inquires about hurricanes concern the death and damage they cause and their intensity. Hurricane Dolly will soon become a part of these statistics. In the Center's NOAA Technical Memorandum, NWS TPC-5, 2007 some very interesting reference points are available by which to judge Hurricane Dolly.