Valley residents looking forward to a new year of sweet, Texas citrus fruit may be in for a shock. Hurricane Dolly's destructive winds have destroyed much of the fruit and in Valley orchards in Bayview and near the coast, claiming as much as 20% of the entire Valley's 2008 crop.    "Valley-wide my guess is about 20 percent loss of the citrus crop," said Dr. Julian Sauls, Texas AgriLife Extension Service citrus specialist. "For the most part, the further inland and south, the less the loss, while the closer to the coast and more northerly, the greater the loss."    Sauls believes the loss will range from less than 10 percent to more than 50 percent, depending on the area.    Texas Citrus Mutual leader Ray Prewitt agreed with that assessment. Though a monetary loss is not available yet, Prewitt said the Texas grapefruit and orange crops have an annual impact of $150 million to $200 million in the region.    "We were already expecting the crop to be down because of wind at bloom time," he said. "Still, some producers are saying they didn't realize such a pretty crop was ripening on the trees until they saw it on the ground (after the hurricane)."    Prewitt said the Texas orange harvest is about two months away. Grapefruit harvest begins in mid-October.    "We had the makings of a good season, and we still hope for the best," Prewitt said. "We just don't need anymore hurricanes, and we need otherwise good weather conditions through harvest."    He said water standing in orchards could stress the trees and cause disease or more fruit drop, but the trees themselves apparently were not heavily damaged by the strong winds.    "I have heard that some citrus trees were uprooted near Rio Hondo," Sauls said. "But I've not seen that elsewhere."    Because Hurricane Dolly blew in a westerly direction, Sauls explained, orchards in an east-west row orientation were not as buffered from the intense, long-duration winds.    "Orchards with a north-south row orientation experienced less fruit loss, as each row somewhat protected the one next to it," he said.    Industry officials said with good conditions, the Texas citrus crop - typically grown for the fresh market and for Christmas gifts in the Lone Star state - will fare well.    "I've been here 25 years and this is the worst hurricane we've had. But overall, we're optimistic," Prewitt added. "Our loss is nothing like what cotton suffered."