SPI could see economic impact from Dolly

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND - Leaders in this coastal resort town had to make a decision Friday no vacation destination ever wants to make: to turn people away.

Hundreds of curious Rio Grande Valley residents took to the island Friday to survey the damage from Dolly, the Category 2 hurricane-central/">hurricane that made landfall Wednesday with 95 mph winds and torrential rainfall.

On Friday afternoon, local police started checking identification of cars entering the Island and turning nonresidents away.

"There's no power here and nothing is open," said Dan Quandt, executive of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Center and unofficial spokesman for the town of 2,700. "We never want to tell people this, but we don't need any visitors here right now."

When Hurricane Dolly blew through South Padre Island, the storm interrupted the height of the Island's tourist season, and the economic impact could be far reaching.

By some estimates, the storm caused some $750 million in damage to South Texas. While it's too early for official estimates, Quandt speculated the damage on the Island alone is in the millions of dollars, as every major business has sustained significant damage.

According to most estimates, it will be at least a week before the majority of businesses reopen.

South Padre Island residents fear the storm could shut down tourism - the area's largest industry - for weeks or months during the busiest season of the year.

"If the tourists don't come, the hotels can't pay their part-time employees and will have to let them go," Quandt said. "That will impact the economy as much as the storm."

No one can calculate the economic damage at this point, he said, and the long-term impact is even more difficult to project.

The storm caused at least $1 million in damage to the SPI Convention Center when winds tore the roof off the building's exhibit center and knocked down a wall to a storage room. There is also water damage.

The recovery from Dolly is also complicated by the lack of electricity.

Quandt said power could be out for more than a week.

Power company trucks can be seen all over the Island, working to remove damaged utility poles and prepare for the installation of new poles and wires. A convoy of additional repair trucks was spotted headed toward the Island on Friday afternoon.

A substation in Port Isabel that is critical to getting power to the Island sustained heavy damage, and no estimate of when it will be repaired has been made.

Officials, business owners and residents are frustrated over the lack of power and the inability to begin many repairs. The hum of small electric generators can be heard all through the town.

Without power, banks are closed and ATMs are out of order, meaning many residents could be left without funds for food, water and other supplies.

There is a concern among the business community that some small business owners may not be able to recover at all.

Across the bay, the town of Laguna Vista condemned 12 individual apartments in four different apartment complexes Thursday.

"There's a house on Orange Street the building inspector hasn't got to yet," City Manager Iris Hill said. "It looks like it might also be condemned."

David and Laura Helms live in the Waters Edge on Santa Isabel. Their apartment is among those that were condemned.

"We went to Brownsville last night looking for a hotel," David Helms said Friday. "They were all full, so we came back home and slept in ours. But we have to move right away."

Laguna Vista police Chief Robert McGinnis said Friday he had already personally pulled one 36-hour shift.

PsychaDeli, a sandwich shop on Padre Boulevard, sustained major damage. Owners Amy Alvis and Josh Kay said they were dealing with the devastation as best they could but were unsure of their future.

At the Cameron County Parks and Recreation Department's office at Isla Blanca Park, on the southern tip of the Island, Parks Director Joe Mendez showed photos of some of the damage at the parks in his care.

No one will be allowed to return until cleanup is complete and all utilities are back in service, he said.

Before the storm, Mendez said, officials predicted any outages would be restored within five to seven days.

"I don't know when we'll be back up and running, or when people we ordered out before the storm can return," he said. "I'll know more about that Monday or Tuesday."