Texas safety

Texas cities and counties have already had their budgets compressed by a variety of factors, including the state's current property tax limits.

Amid increasingly intense weather, the Chemical Safety Board is the lone independent agency watching over the Gulf Coast's petrochemical corridor.

A new county has joined the outbreak list this week. The Department of State Health Services confirmed four outbreak-linked cases in Fannin County. Fannin is next door to Lamar County, where the state confirmed five new measles cases this week.

Residents say Kerr County's use of CodeRED alerts was sporadic and inconsistent. Local officials have not answered questions about when and how they utilized the system, which has been in place since 2009.

The very qualities that draw people to the beautiful Texas Hill Country — rolling terrain, limestone formations and lazy rivers — also make the area deadly during heavy rainstorms.

Disaster relief organizations, including the Red Cross and Salvation Army, have deployed to the Texas Hill Country to help those affected.

The state health department is reporting 744 confirmed cases of measles linked to the West Texas outbreak since January. That is the same number it reported on Tuesday.

More than 60 anti-Trump protests are planned in major cities across the state this weekend, including Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

The cases were in El Paso and Midland counties.

The total number of confirmed cases linked to the region's measles outbreak is now up to 738.