ABC13 first heard the Houston Fire Department reporting the incident on radio traffic around 8 a.m. HFD first reported an "alert two," which means a plane in the air has had some kind of incident that requires emergency response. Within minutes, HFD escalated it to an "alert three," which means a plane has had an incident on the ground.
I assume this is just bad info or someone made a mistaken radio call re:alert level. When i read it I was reminded of the stuck rudder from cold soaked servo of another MAX 8.