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Kerr County officials confirm 40-min lag in response on July 4

Kerr County officials for the first time confirmed on Thursday a 40-min lag in their response to sending out mass warnings of the deadly July 4th floods.

The confirmation came as legislators met in Kerrville to assess what went wrong.

Sheriff Larry Leitha had until Thursday declined to answer questions about when CodeRED alerts were sent. The county system can send mass alerts to people’s phones.

Houston Democrat Ann Johnson asked why the alert wasn’t sent sooner: “These people, they were overwhelmed. These dispatchers were with phone calls, radio transmissions, trying to write. They did a great job. The code Red went out at 5:01."

The admission confirmed reporting first broken by The Texas Newsroom. The county has yet to release documents requested by the press.