2008: Hurricane Dolly strikes

Hurricane Dolly blew into the Rio Grande Valley on July 23, becoming the first hurricane to make a direct hit in the region since Hurricane Beulah in 1967.

Residents warily watched Dolly as it reached tropical storm status on July 20, churning in the Gulf of Mexico about 230 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

Over the next days, city and county workers began distributing sandbags as Dolly took aim at the Valley. After flocking to stores to buy batteries and generators, ice and canned food, residents hunkered down behind boarded up windows.

Dolly was a Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds when it made landfall at South Padre Island around 2 p.m. The eye passed near Port Mansfield about two hours later, according to the National Weather Service.

Dolly drenched the Valley with up to 18 inches, resulting in widespread flooding, in addition to wind-damaged buildings and days without electricity.

Dolly inflicted damage to the scoreboard at San Benito's Bobby Morrow Stadium, the Bahia Mar hotel at South Padre Island and the Elma Barrera Elementary School in Santa Rosa, as well as scores of businesses and residences.

Within a week, the standing water incubated the next storm-related menace: clouds of mosquitoes that bedeviled residents until county officials prevailed upon the state to pay for aerial spraying to combat the pests.

As residents tried to dry out and repair storm damage, a wave of wet weather moved into the Valley with more soaking rain in the weeks following Dolly.

Along FM 506, north of La Feria and south of Santa Rosa, homes remained flooded for months. Cameron County resorted to bringing in pumps to remove the water.

Piles of storm debris lingered for weeks along roadsides while city, county and state officials wrestled over which government agency was responsible for its removal.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up disaster aid centers at a variety of locations, but abruptly decamped when Hurricane Ike threatened the Houston-Galveston area on Sept. 13.