911 calls from Texas floods reveal chaotic and desperate pleas for rescues

KERRVILLE Texas AP In an instant frantic voices overwhelmed the two county emergency dispatchers on duty in the Texas Hill Country as catastrophic flooding inundated cabins and youth camps along the Guadalupe River A firefighter clinging to a tree who watched his wife be swept away A family emerging through their roof hoping for rescue A woman calling from an all-girls camp waters swirling around and unsure how to escape Their panic-stricken pleas were among more than calls for help across Kerr County last summer when unimaginable floods hit during the overnight hours on the July Fourth holiday according to recordings of the calls published Friday There s water filling up super fast we can t get out of our cabin a camp counselor advised a dispatcher above the screams of campers in the background We can t get out of our cabin so how do we get to the boats Amazingly everyone in the cabin and the rest of campers at Camp La Junta were rescued The flooding killed at least people statewide during the holiday weekend including at least in Kerr County alone Majority were from Texas but others came from Alabama California and Florida according to a list disclosed by county administrators One woman called for help as the water closed in on her house near Camp Mystic a century-old summer camp for girls where campers and two teenage counselors died We re OK but we live a mile down the road from Camp Mystic and we had two little girls come down the river And we ve gotten to them but I m not sure how several others are out there she reported in a shaky voice A spokesperson for the parents of the children and counselors who died at Camp Mystic declined to comment on the release of the recordings Calls came from people on rooftops and in trees A great number of residents in the hard-hit Texas Hill Country have commented they were caught off guard and didn t receive any warning when the floods overtopped the Guadalupe River Kerr County leaders have faced scrutiny about whether they did enough right away Two representatives narrated Texas legislators this summer that they were asleep during the initial hours of the flooding and a third was out of town Using recordings of first responder communications weather utility warnings survivor videos and official testimony The Associated Press assembled a chronology of the chaotic rescue effort The AP was one of the media outlets that filed inhabitants information requests for recordings of the calls to be circulated Several people were rescued by boats and exigency vehicles A scant desperate pleas came from people floating away in RVs Specific survivors were determined in trees and on rooftops But selected of the calls circulated Friday came from people who did not survive noted Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall who warned that the audio is unsettling The tree I m in is starting to lean and it s going to fall Is there a helicopter close Bradley Perry a firefighter calmy stated a dispatcher adding that he saw his wife Tina and their RV wash away I ve seemingly got maybe five minutes left he disclosed Bradley Perry did not survive His wife was later ascertained clinging to a tree still alive Moving higher and higher to survive In another heartbreaking call a woman staying in a locality of riverside cabins described a dispatcher the water was inundating their building We are flooding and we have people in cabins we can t get to she announced We are flooding almost all the way to the top The caller speaks slowly and deliberately The faint voices of what sounds like children can be heard in the background Chosen people called back multiple times climbing higher and higher in houses to let rescuers know where they were and that their situations were getting more dire Families called from second floors then attics then roofs sometimes in the program of or minutes revealing how fast and how high the waters rose As daylight began to break the call volume increased with people reporting survivors in trees or stuck on roofs or cars floating down the river Britt Eastland the co-director of Camp Mystic requested for search and rescue and the National Guard to be called saying as numerous as people there were missing We re out of power We hardly have any cell organization he declared The recordings show that relatives and friends outside of the unfolding tragedy and those who had made it to safety had called to get help for loved ones trapped in the flooding One woman noted a friend an elderly man was trapped in his home with water up to his head She had realized his phone cut out as she was trying to relay instructions from a operator Dispatchers gave advice and comfort Overwhelmed by the endless calls dispatchers tried to comfort the panic-stricken callers yet were forced to move on to the next one They advised a large number of of those who were trapped to get to their rooftops or run to higher ground In several calls children could be heard screaming in the background There is water everywhere we cannot move We are upstairs in a room and the water is rising reported a woman who called from Camp Mystic The same woman called back later How do we get to the roof if the water is so high she solicited Can you already send someone here With the boats She urged the dispatcher when help would arrive I don t know the dispatcher explained I don t know Associated Press reporters Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia Heather Hollingsworth in Mission Kansas Ed White in Detroit Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery Alabama John Seewer in Toledo Ohio and Mike Catalini in Trenton New Jersey contributed Source