KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Many voices are ringing with madness and desperation. Some maintain their composure in the face of increasingly dire dangers and, in some cases, inevitable doom.
Their families huddled on rooftops to escape the rising swirling water, with mothers panicking for their children’s safety, while onlookers heard people clinging to treetops in the dark calling for help.
A man trapped high in a tree that was beginning to break under the pressure of floodwaters begged emergency dispatchers to send a helicopter to rescue him, but a helicopter rescue never came.
Their plea was one of more than 400 calls for help received in Kerr County last summer following devastating flooding on the night of the July 4 holiday. The recording of the 911 call was released Friday.
The volume of calls was enough to overwhelm two county emergency dispatchers on duty in the Texas Hill Country as catastrophic flooding inundated cabins and youth camps along the Guadalupe River.
“The water was filling up so fast we couldn’t get out of our cabins,” a camp counselor told the dispatcher as campers screamed in the background. “How can we get on the ship if we can’t get out of the cabin?”
Amazingly, everyone in the cabin was rescued, as well as the other campers at Camp La Junta.
Over the holiday weekend, flooding killed at least 136 people across the state, including at least 117 in Kerr County alone. Most were from Texas, but others were from Alabama, California and Florida, according to a list released by county officials.
A woman called for help as flooding flooded her house near Camp Mystic. Camp Mystic, a century-old summer camp for girls, where 25 campers and two teen counselors died.
“We’re okay, but we live a mile from Camp Mystic and there are two little girls who came down the river. We’ve found them, but I’m not sure how many others are out there,” she said, her voice shaking.
Spokespeople for the parents of the children and counselors who died at the mystery camp declined to comment on the release of the recording.
People calling from rooftops and trees
Many residents in the hard-hit Texas Hill Country said they were caught off guard and received no warning when floodwaters swamped the Guadalupe River. Kerr County leaders face scrutiny over whether they took enough immediate action. This summer, two officials told Texas lawmakers they were sleeping during the first hours of flooding, and one was out of town.
The Associated Press used audio recordings of first responder communications, weather service warnings, survivor videos and official testimony to compile a chronology of the chaotic rescue effort. The Associated Press was one of the media outlets that filed a public information request to release recordings of 911 calls.
Many people were rescued by boats and emergency vehicles. There were some desperate pleas from people drifting away in RVs. Some survivors were found in trees and on rooftops.
But Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall said some of the calls released Friday were from people who didn’t survive, and he warned the audio was disturbing.
“The tree I was in started to lean and was about to fall over. Is there a helicopter nearby?” firefighter Bradley Perry calmly told the dispatcher, adding that he saw his wife, Tina, and their RV swept away.
“I probably have five minutes left,” he said.
Bradley Perry did not survive. His wife was later found clinging to a tree, still alive.
Go higher and higher to survive
In another heartbreaking call, a woman who lives in the River Cottage community told dispatchers that water was flooding their building
“We’re having flooding and we can’t get to the people in the huts,” she said. “We were flooded almost to the top of the mountain.”
The caller spoke slowly and deliberately. A faint, child-like voice can be heard in the background.
Some people called back multiple times, climbing higher and higher in the house to let rescuers know where they were, their conditions becoming increasingly dire. Sometimes within 30 or 40 minutes, family members would call from second floors, attics, and rooftops to find out how fast and how high the water was rising.
As daybreak began, calls for help began to increase, with people reporting survivors trapped in trees or on roofs, or cars driven down rivers.
Britt Eastland, co-director of Camp Mystic, called for a search and rescue operation and the deployment of the National Guard, saying as many as 40 people were missing there. “We have no power. We barely have any cell service,” he said.
911 recordings show friends and relatives outside the disaster, as well as those who fled to safety, calling to seek help for loved ones trapped in the floods.
One woman said one of her friends, an elderly man, was trapped in his home with water above his head. When she tried to relay the 911 operator’s instructions, she noticed his phone was disconnected.
Dispatchers offer advice and comfort
Dispatchers, overwhelmed by endless calls, tried to calm panicked callers, only to be forced to move on to the next call. They advised many of the trapped people to climb onto rooftops or run to higher ground. In some calls, children could be heard screaming in the background.
“There’s water everywhere and we can’t move. We’re in a room upstairs and the water is rising,” said a woman who called from Camp Mystic.
The same woman called later.
“How can we get to the roof if the water is so high?” she asked. “Can you send someone here? With a boat?”
She asked the dispatcher when help would arrive.
“I don’t know,” the dispatcher said. “I have no idea.”
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Associated Press writers Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kan.; Ed White in Detroit; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Ala.; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed.
