ST..JOHNS (CBC) - Tropical storm Dolly kept dumping rain on Texas and Mexico Thursday as it moved farther inland, leaving floods, ripped-off roofs and litter-strewn streets in its wake.

No storm-related deaths were reported on either sides of the border, though U.S. media said a 17-year-old boy in Texas broke several bones when strong winds knocked him from a seventh-storey balcony on South Padre Island.

Dolly came ashore midday Wednesday on the barrier resort island as a Category 2 hurricane, with 161 km/h winds, before weakening into a tropical storm late Wednesday.

Residents and recovery teams fanned out across southern Texas around dawn Thursday, checking out houses with their roofs ripped off, toppled trees and downed power lines.

By late Thursday morning, wind speeds had dropped by more than half, and the storm was expected to dwindle into a tropical depression later in the day as it moved westward, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A tropical storm warning stretching across much of the southern Texas coast was cancelled at 10 a.m. CT, the centre said.

The river rose steadily through the day in Brownsville, but did not reach flood stage. Officials had feared the levees holding back the Rio Grande River could be breached by torrential rains.

"We're not experiencing any issues with the levees right now," Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission, said late Wednesday. "The water is just not high enough."

Residents in some areas were warned to stay at home "unless it's life or death" since power lines were hanging across streets and water surrounded neighbourhoods, said Tony Pena, Hidalgo County emergency co-ordinator.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared 14 south Texas counties disaster areas, and sought federal disaster declarations. He was scheduled to fly over the region Thursday.

At 10 a.m., the centre of the storm hovered near the Texas city of Laredo, on the north bank of the Rio Grande, and was moving west-northwest around 15 km/h, with maximum sustained winds of nearly 75 km/h.

Floodwaters swamp community

One of the communities flooded included Laureles, north of Los Frenos, which had been reduced to a chain of sunken islands by Wednesday afternoon, separated from the main roads by floodwaters of nearly 61 centimetres or more in places.

Mailboxes barely peaked above murky, wind-swept waters where neighbourhood loops met county roads.

Pedro Zuniga, his wife and their six children fled their mobile home for the comparative safety of a relative's wood-frame house next door. That home's owner had already left to take shelter in another relative's brick house.

Peering out the back door at the trailer he deemed too wobbly for his family, Zuniga said the water crossing his yard toward a canal behind was not as high as he had seen it a few years ago when it reached the base of his elevated trailer.

"We were going to go to a shelter, but they said there was only one so we decided to stay," said Zuniga's wife, Aleida Cardenas, 29. "But we didn't know it would be this bad."

More than 5,000 people moved to public shelters in the three hardest-hit counties and the numbers were expected to grow Thursday as more people became stranded by floodwaters.

In Hidalgo County, Pena said there were several incidents late Wednesday requiring emergency personnel to rescue people from homes.

One family was left huddling in their topless house after winds blew the roof off in the northeast part of the county until rescuers arrived, Pena said. In Cameron County, sheriff's deputies rescued a family of eight from Los Fresnos after floodwaters surrounded their home.

The only serious injury reported Wednesday occurred when the wind knocked a 17-year-old boy from a seventh-story balcony on South Padre Island. The boy suffered a broken hip, leg and a head injury, but could not be transported off the island until about 5 p.m.

The island sustained some of the storm's heaviest damage and was still without power Wednesday night. Roofs were torn off hotels and homes, there was significant flooding that had begun to subside and debris was everywhere. A curfew was imposed for 8 p.m., Zamora said.

No deaths were immediately reported in Mexico, but Tamaulipas state Gov. Eugenio Hernandez said 50 neighbourhoods were still in danger from flooding. About 13,000 people had taken refuge in 21 shelters, he said.

"Strong winds are no longer the problem. Now we have to worry about intense rain in the next 24 hours," Hernandez said.

Earlier in the day, Mexican soldiers made a last-minute attempt to rescue people at the mouth of the Rio Grande, using an inflatable raft to retrieve at least one family trapped in their home. Many people farther inland refused to go to government shelters.

Many Texans heading north were stopped at inland Border Patrol checkpoints, where agents opened extra lanes to ease traffic flow while still checking documentation and arresting illegal immigrants, said sector spokesman Dan Doty. At one checkpoint on U.S. 77, smugglers were caught with nearly 10,000 pounds of marijuana.

The busiest part of the Atlantic hurricane season is usually in August and September. So far this year, there have been four named storms, two of which became hurricanes. Federal forecasters predict a total of 12 to 16 named storms, and six to nine hurricanes this season.

With files from the Associated Press

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