Two top leaders in a rural Texas county were asleep and a third was out of town in the initial hours of a catastrophic flood that caused widespread destruction and killed more than 130 people

William "Dub" Thomas, the Kerr County emergency management director, detailed his whereabouts during the crisis to a panel of state lawmakers at a hearing on Thursday in Kerrville, Texas.

All key leading officials from the Texas county hardest hit by the July 4 flash flooding that killed at least 136 people, were absent from an emergency briefing call ahead of the flash flooding incident,

Texas lawmakers held a day-long hearing in Kerrville to investigate the lack of warnings during the deadly July 4 flooding along the Guadalupe River. Officials revealed that key county leaders were unavailable during the early hours of the disaster.

State lawmakers will be in Kerrville Thursday, nearly a month after the deadly Texas Hill Country flooding. It's all part of a joint hearing to discuss what happened during the flooding tragedy, explore possible solutions,