Hurricane Dolly smashed into the Texas coastline on Wednesday, lashing the area with 160 kilometre per hour winds before weakening as it made landfall.

Dolly began to blast towns along the Texas/Mexico border Wednesday morning. By the afternoon, communities were being drenched with massive amounts of water.

The hurricane was expected to dump up to 38 centimetres of rain in some areas.

"People are most concerned about the water because it's a low-lying area and there is so much water coming in," CNN correspondent Elizabeth Manresa told CTV Newsnet from South Padre Island, Texas. "When we were driving around earlier today it was hard to tell just how deep the water was."

By 4 p.m. local time, the eye of the storm was about 80 kilometres north of Brownsville, Texas.

Disaster officials are most concerned about the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley area where many flood levees are in disrepair and have been largely neglected since the last hurricane passed through the area more than 40 years ago.

"They're worried if so much rain falls on that area near the river it could damage those levees, compromise their integrity and lead to widespread flooding," said CNN's Sean Callebs.

On South Padre Island, where Callebs and Manresa reported from while being pelted by rain and blasting winds, most people had heeded an official warning to head to the mainland. However, others decided to ride out the storm.

U.S. National Guard troops have been stationed around the state's most vulnerable areas and are poised to move in and help, if necessary.