7:45 a.m. CDT
Police say emergency personnel could shut down a highway if a dam southwest of Dallas breaks.
Water was flowing over the top of the earthen dam at Padera Lake, near Midlothian, early Wednesday morning after days of heavy rain. If the dam breaks, U.S. 287 could flood with a couple of feet of water.
Midlothian police Capt. John Spann said officials will divert traffic if that happens, but for now they must "just wait and see."
He said it's mostly a rural area, but that residents of around a dozen homes have been warned they could be in jeopardy of flooding if the dam breaks. He said they are not in danger of being swept away and that there's no mandatory evacuation order.
Midlothian is some 25 miles southwest of Dallas.
2:15 a.m. CDT
Authorities in Texas are defending the way they handled alerting residents during the recent severe weather that left about a dozen people missing and about a dozen dead across the state.
But they are also acknowledging some challenges.
In Hays County, where a vacation home was swept away by flooding, authorities say warnings included multiple cellphone alerts and calls to landlines.
Some people also received in-person warnings to evacuate, but officials couldn't say whether the eight people in the washed-away home talked to police.
A county commissioner said leaders will consider changes in dealing with tourists, who are harder to reach.
In Houston, where rain submerged roads and stranded motorists, warnings from the National Weather Service buzzed on cellphones. But city officials hadn't yet installed a system that would allow them to send more targeted warnings.