KERR COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) – Dispatch audio has surfaced from the critical hours before a deadly flood hit its height in Kerr County, helping piece together the timeframe local officials have yet to provide amid public scrutiny of their decisions on July 4.

“We still have water coming up,” an Ingram volunteer firefighter is heard telling a county sheriff dispatcher at 4:22 a.m. “The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39. Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?”

LISTEN: Ingram volunteer firefighter calls Kerr County dispatch during deadly July 4 flood, requesting CodeRED alert.

CodeRED is a notification system some agencies use to send emergency alerts to subscribers’ cell phones. Online, the county encourages residents to sign up for the free service, which “has the ability to notify the entire county or only the affected areas” about emergency situations – including severe weather – “in a matter of minutes.”

In the recording obtained by KXAN investigators from a credible source, the dispatcher then tells the firefighter: “We have to get that approved with our supervisor. Just be advised we do have the Texas water rescue en route.”

The timing of that request came more than three hours after the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning – at 1:14 a.m. – for a portion of the county and around 20........

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