AEP Texas outages exceed 200,000 after Dolly

HOUSTON (Reuters) - American Electric Power Co's Texas unit reported more than 200,000 customers in South Texas without power on Thursday after Hurricane Dolly rolled through the Rio Grande Valley, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dolly's wind strengthened to 100 mph (160 kph) before it made landfall on Wednesday, crossing South Padre Island. High wind and rain continue to affect a large part of AEP's South Texas service territory Thursday as Dolly moves inland as a tropical storm.

Utility crews are evaluating damage to the distribution network and the high-voltage transmission grid, AEP said in a statement.

The Texas grid operator issued an alert on Wednesday due to transmission damage in the Brownsville area.

AEP's Texas utility reported 200,916 outages in 10 counties from the tip of Texas north to the Corpus Christi area. The highest number of outages Thursday were reported in Hidalgo County at 115,799. Cameron County had 73,789 outages, according to a report at 9:34 a.m. CDT (10:34 a.m. EDT).

Neighboring utilities will begin sending tree trimmers and line workers to the storm-damaged area on Thursday to bolster AEP's own crews, officials.

(Reporting by Eileen O'Grady; Editing by Marguerita Choy)