The leader of the Hawaii National Guard told state lawmakers that he informed the governor that a panic-inducing missile alert was a false alarm two minutes after it had been sent to cellphones statewide.

The leader, Maj. Gen. Arthur J. Logan, made the revelation about the Jan. 13 episode at a hearing on Friday during which legislators raised concerns about why that critical information was not conveyed to the public more quickly.

Amid the chaos and confusion, it took officials 38 minutes to send a second message saying the original message was an error. Officials have said a flaw in the alert system delayed the distribution of the correction.

“The false alarm has identified so many gaps in the system,” Della Au Belatti, the majority leader of the Hawaii State House, said in a phone interview on Saturday. “We won’t see this kind of communications breakdown again.”