Tropical storm Dolly hits Mexico’s northeast coast

Tropical Storm Dolly moved ashore late Tuesday and soaked Mexico’s Gulf coast, where authorities suspended school classes and readied shelters. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Dolly was located about 40 kilometres south-southeast of Tampico on Tuesday evening. Dolly was blowing maximum sustained winds of 72 km/h, but having made landfall the storm was expected to lose strength by Wednesday evening as Dolly moves inland, NHC said. The storm is expected to bring 12 to 25 centimetres of rain to states of Tamaulipas and Veracruz, along the Gulf coast and inland. Life-threatening flash floods and mud slides were possible in mountainous areas.

This rainfall is expected to cause life-threatening flash floods and mud slides in areas of mountainous terrain.

U.S. National Hurricane Center statement

Dolly, which formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico early on Tuesday, has already forced the closure of two of Mexico’s three major crude oil export terminals. Dolly, the fourth named storm of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, was about 40 km south-southeast of Tampico in northeastern Tamaulipas state, the NHC said. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Norbert formed on Tuesday off southwestern Mexico, and was about 515 km southeast of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, the NHC said. Mexico suffered its worst floods on record last September when tropical storms Manuel and Ingrid converged from the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, killing more than 150 people and causing damage estimated at around $6 billion.

Americas Dolly