Frightened Texans could barely be heard over the roar of floodwaters as they begged 911 dispatchers for help in the early hours of July 4, newly released recordings reveal.
More than 20 hours of emergency calls were made public by the Kerrville Police Department on Thursday, months after catastrophic flooding killed 130 people across the region, including 25 children from Camp Mystic.
In one now-heartbreaking call, a staff member from Camp Mystic — the girls’ Christian summer camp outside San Antonio where dozens lost their lives — described being trapped as the nearby river surged out of its banks.
“There is water everywhere, we cannot move. We are upstairs in a room and the water is rising,” the woman told the dispatcher.
“If the water will be higher than the room, what should we do?”
In a later call, the same employee asked, “How do we get to the roof if the water is so high? Can you already send someone here? With the boats?”
The dispatcher assured her that help was on the way, but admitted she could not say when rescuers would arrive.
At one chilling point in the conversation, the caller reported that an entire house had been swept away by the flood.
After the hundreds of calls were released, Kerrville Police Chief Chris McCall acknowledged that not everyone who reached out for help made it out alive.
He said that some of the people whose voices are heard on the tapes “did not survive,” adding, “We ask that you keep them and their family members, loved ones, and friends in your thoughts and prayers.”
Residents in and around the San Antonio area were left stranded in darkness as intense overnight rainfall rapidly turned into a deadly wall of water.
Many callers pleaded not only for rescue but for basic guidance on how to stay alive as the water rose around them and escape routes vanished.
In one call, Scott Towery, general manager of the River Inn Resort, told dispatchers the property was packed on the night the flood hit.
“We’re waking them up now,” he said, explaining that about 130 guests were staying at the resort.
“Our dam went under water two and a half hours ago […] It’s really high, like the 1998-flood-type high.”
In a second call made shortly afterward by Towery, rushing water drowned out almost everything else on the line.
“There’s water everywhere,” another caller said in a separate recording. “We cannot move. We are right upstairs in a room and the water level’s rising.”
City officials warned in advance that listening to the calls could be deeply upsetting, but said they chose to release them in the hope that the tragedy would spur renewed preparation and planning for future disasters.
“Today presents another moment to reaffirm who we are: a united, resilient community determined to recover and rebuild. Kerrville Strong,” the city said in a statement.
