Flooding feared along U.S.-Mexico border from Dolly

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has put 1,200 National Guard troops on alert in case they are needed to help cope with the storm's aftermath.

There were no reports that levees along the Rio Grande had been breached.

The Bush administration declared 15 of the Texas counties hit hardest by the storm as disaster areas, allowing them to draw on federal funds for cleanup and rebuilding.

In South Padre Island, residents emerged from their homes and shelters to walk through streets littered with debris, toppled street lights and downed power poles.

"Everything is gone. Everything got wet," said Amber Acevado, who runs a flooring store on the island. "You stand here inside the store, you can see right through to the outside."

Many residents and tourists trapped on the island by the storm left after a causeway to the mainland reopened.

Offshore drilling rigs and production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico emerged from the storm mostly unscathed.

U.S. crude oil prices rose earlier this week on worries of possible storm damage to offshore drilling rigs. But oil prices fell after the storm barely dented supplies, hitting a 7-week low of $123.50 a barrel on Thursday.

In Mexico, Dolly flooded towns along the northeast coast up to waist level, and a man was killed in the border city of Matamoros when power cables fell into floodwater and electrocuted him, local authorities said.