Denton County authorities notified residents near Lake Ray Roberts to be ready to evacuate should rising water from open flood gates reach homes or cover roadways.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the water level at Lake Ray Roberts is 7 feet above flood stage and water needs to continue to be released into Lake Lewisville via the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.
The flood gates have been open since 6 p.m. Saturday and are currently releasing 2,000 cubic feet, or roughly 15,000 gallons, per second.
The Corps of Engineers planned to open the gates even more Tuesday, but decided not to out of an abundance of caution, and instead decided to release 3,400 cubic feet per second, or 25,433 gallons, per second out of Lake Lewisville into the Trinity River and release 4,000 cubic feet per second, or 29,922 gallons, per second from Lake Lavon.
The water out of Ray Roberts was not expected to impact any homes directly, but if the volume of water released is increased, homes and roads in the spillway may be in danger.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Denton County Office of Emergency Management's Jody Gonzalez. said they delivered a letter to 150 to 200 residents downstream from the Lake Ray Roberts dam that warned them to be prepared to evacuate.
Some of the residents aren't taking the notification seriously, while others are very concerned and have evacuated, NBC 5 has learned.
For folks on Elm Bottom Circle, the concern is not being able to get in or out of their neighborhood.
The street on both ends gets flooded because of the creek. The release of water and the rain will make that possibly worse.
After getting the knock on the door, Buddy Vaughn's first concern was his family.
"My daughter is in a wheelchair, so that makes a little extra planning for us, because we need to figure out where we're going to stay, grab a couple of night's clothes," he said.
Meanwhile, for ranchers, the concern is their livelihood: their cattle.
Steve Day spent all Tuesday morning moving his cattle to higher ground. Last night, neighbor Tom Kader did the same thing.
"They followed the cake into another pasture. and the horses kept them from running off to the sides," said Kader, explaining the process of moving the cows to higher ground.
Now folks are watching the weather and their property closely.
"I've never had this much water get this close, and we've never had state troopers knock on the door and say you may have to evacuate," said Vaughn.
For More Information: Status of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Other Lakes in the Ft Worth District
NBC 5's Ellen Bryan, Ray Villeda and Frank Heinz contributed to this report.
![[NATL-DFW]Texas Cowboys Save 31 Horses from Flooded River](https://ots.nbcwpshield.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Kinder-Aggugini-for-Macys.jpg?fit=3613%2C2400){kind=link}