Dolly became a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday afternoon as it moved toward southern Texas and northeastern Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said.

At 5 p.m. ET, the storm, with sustained winds near 75 mph, was centered in the Gulf of Mexico about 165 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas.

Residents in that city were preparing for the storm, according to police spokesman Jimmy Manrrique.

“The citizens here are reacting very well. They’ve stocked up on their supplies,” Manrrique said. “At this point, we’re preparing for a lot of rain and some wind damage.”

Dolly should be very near Brownsville and other cities on the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico by Wednesday, forecasters said.

A Category 1 hurricane carries sustained winds between 74 mph and 95 mph.

The storm was moving to the northwest at about 10 mph, and that motion should bring its core to extreme southern Texas or northeastern Mexico by Wednesday, the hurricane center said. Dolly’s forward motion was forecast to slow, giving it more time to intensify over the warm Gulf waters.

See Dolly’s projected path at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/07/22/tropical.weather/index.html#cnnSTCOther1 .

Forecasters said hurricane warnings were in effect for the coast of Texas from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, and for the northeast coast of Mexico from Rio San Fernando to the Texas-Mexico border.

A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected in the warning area within the next 24 hours.

Hurricane warnings that were in effect from north of Corpus Christi, Texas, to Port O’Connor were downgraded to tropical storm warnings by 11 a.m.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for residents living north of Corpus Christi to San Luis Pass, Texas. The region from Rio San Fernando to La Pesca is under a hurricane watch as well as a tropical storm warning.

Dolly is expected to produce rainfall of 6 to 10 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 if residents have to evacuate, The Associated Press reported.

Shell Oil told the AP that 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 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 Tuesday whether aircraft based in Corpus Christi, Texas, should be moved farther inland because of the storm.

A number of ships taking part in exercises off the mid-Atlantic coast have 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 http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/07/22/tropical.weather/index.html#cnnSTCOther2 .

Again, forecasters said Dolly was expected to strengthen further before making landfall early Wednesday as a hurricane with sustained winds somewhere between 74 to 95 mph.

For more info visit http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/07/22/tropical.weather/index.html or http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25783373/ or any other weather or news website.

Sincerely,

chris luz.