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The Latest on weather: Texas officials defend storm response

A highway entrance is covered in water and debris after flood waters overran the banks of the bayou in downtown Houston, Tuesday, May 26, 2015. Floodwaters kept rising Tuesday across much of Texas as storms dumped almost another foot of rain on the Houston area, stranding hundreds of motorists and inundating the famously congested highways that serve the nation’s fourth-largest city. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) A highway entrance is covered in water and debris after flood waters overran the banks of the bayou in downtown Houston, Tuesday, May 26, 2015. Floodwaters kept rising Tuesday across much of Texas as storms dumped almost another foot of rain on the Houston area, stranding hundreds of motorists and inundating the famously congested highways that serve the nation’s fourth-largest city. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

By Associated Press May 27, 2015 1 min read

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 says 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.