While Hurricanes Gustav and Ike soaked up most of the attention (and deservedly so) in 2008, there was another hurricane that hit the U.S. coast that year – Hurricane Dolly.

As soon-to-be Hurricane Alex is forecasted, Dolly made landfall near Brownsville early in the season (July 23rd as a Category 1) and kicked off what was a particularly destructive year.  Dolly alone  accounted for 1.05 billion dollars in damage.

Jeff Masters of Wunderground predicts a similar result from Alex:

The combined wind, surge, and flooding damage from 2008′s Hurricane Dolly, which hit near Brownsville, were about $1.05 billion. Dolly was a Category 2 hurricane offshore that weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds when it made landfall. I expect Alex will be similar in its impacts to Dolly, though Alex’s storm surge damage is likely to be greater. Full Article.

Early indicators suggest that the talking heads of climatology were spot on in their dire warnings for 2010.