KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Many of the voices were frantic and desperate. Some were still and calm amidst mounting, terrifying danger, and in some cases, inevitable destruction.
They came from families huddled on rooftops to escape the rising, swirling waters, mothers fearing for the well-being of their children and bystanders who heard people clinging to treetops screaming for help in the dark.
A man trapped high in a tree after it began to break under the pressure of floodwaters asked emergency dispatchers for a helicopter rescue that never came.
Their pleas for help were among more than 400 calls for help during the devastating overnight flooding across Kerr County over the Fourth of July holiday last summer. Recordings of the 911 calls were released Friday.
The sheer volume of calls will overwhelm the two county emergency dispatchers on duty in the Texas Hill Country as devastating floods inundate cabins and youth camps along the Guadalupe River.
“The water is filling up there so fast, we can’t get out of our cabin,” a camp counselor told a dispatcher above the screams of campers in the background. “We can’t get out of our cabin, so how can we get to the boat?”
Amazingly everyone in the cabin and the rest of the campers at Camp La Junta were rescued.
Flooding killed at least 136 people statewide over the holiday weekend, including at least 117 in Kerr County alone. Most were from Texas, but others came from Alabama, California and Florida, according to a list released by county officials.
A woman called for help after the water shut off at her home near Camp Mystic, a century-old summer camp for girls where 25 campers and two teenage counselors died.
“We’re fine, but we live a mile down the road from Camp Mystic and we had two little girls come up the river. And we got to them, but I don’t know how many more there are,” she said with a shaky voice.
A spokeswoman for the parents and counselors of the children who died at Camp Mystic declined to comment on the release of the recording.
Calls came from people on rooftops and in trees
Many residents of the hard-hit Texas Hill Country said they were caught off guard and received no warning when the Guadalupe River flooded. Kerr County leaders have faced scrutiny over whether they did enough immediately. Two officials told Texas legislators this summer that they were sleeping in the early hours of the flood, and a third were out of town.
Using first responder communications, weather service warnings, survivor videos and recordings of official testimony, The Associated Press assembled a chronology of the chaotic rescue effort. The AP was one of the media outlets that filed public information requests for the recordings of the 911 calls to be released.
Many were rescued by boats and emergency vehicles. A few desperate pleas came from people floating in RVs. Some survivors were found in trees and on roofs.
But some of the calls released Friday were from survivors, said Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall, who cautioned that the audio is disturbing.
“That tree I’m in is starting to fall and it’s falling. Is there a helicopter nearby?” Bradley Perry, a firefighter, calmly told a dispatcher, adding that he saw his wife, Tina, and their RV in the shower.
“I probably have five minutes left,” he said.
Bradley Perry did not survive. His wife was later found hanging from a tree, still alive.
Moving up and up to survive
In another heartbreaking call, a woman living in a community of riverside cabins told a dispatcher that water was flooding their building.
“We’re getting flooding, and we have people in cabins we can’t get to,” she said. “We’re flooded almost all the way to the top.”
The caller speaks slowly and deliberately. Sounds like children can be heard in the background.
Some people called multiple times, climbing up and down the houses to tell rescuers where they were and that their situation was getting more dire. Families are called from the second floor, then the attics, then the roofs, sometimes within 30 or 40 minutes, revealing how fast and how high the water rose.
As daylight began to break, the volume of calls increased, with people reporting survivors in trees or cars stuck on roofs or floating in rivers.
Britt Eastland, co-director of Camp Mystic, called search and rescue and the National Guard, and said there were about 40 people missing. “We’re out of power. We have no cell service,” he said.
911 recordings showed that relatives and friends outside the unfolding disaster and those who had reached safety called for help for loved ones trapped in the flood.
A woman said a friend, an elderly man, was trapped in his home with water up to his head. She realized her phone had been disconnected as she tried to relay instructions from the 911 operator.
Dispatchers offered advice and comfort
Overwhelmed by endless calls, dispatchers tried to comfort panicked callers but were forced to move on to another. They advised many who were trapped to get to their roofs or flee to higher ground. In some calls, children could be heard screaming in the background.
“There’s water everywhere, we can’t walk. We’re upstairs in a room and the water is rising,” said a woman who called from Camp Mystic.
Later the same woman called.
“How can we get to the roof if the water is so high?” she asked. “Can you send someone here already? With the boats?”
She asked the dispatcher when help would arrive.
“I don’t know,” said the dispatcher. “I don’t know.”
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Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Ed White in Detroit; Safiyah Paheli in Montgomery, Alabama; John Seaver in Toledo, Ohio; and contributed by Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey.
