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A man clings to a tree on the Guadalupe River and is screaming for helicopter rescue. A father pushes his family into his attic to escape rising water. An employee at Camp Mystic is pleading with the 911 operator to send help immediately.
Five months after devastating flooding in the Texas Hill Country left more than 100 people dead in a single hard-hit county, hundreds of 911 audio files released Friday offer a new glimpse of the terror and panic that surrounded the July 4 flood.
Here are the stories of desperate victims of the devastating flood in Kerr County:
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3:49 am
Water was heading to a home near the river on Highway 39 when a dispatcher asked the frightened caller if he needed police, fire or emergency medical services for help.
“I want everything, sir,” said the man. “My house is so flooded. The water is 3 feet (1 meter) high. I have kids here. I just need someone to be aware. I’m scared it’s all going to blow over.”
The dispatcher urged the caller to get as high above ground level as possible.
“Let’s go,” the man says to his family. “Get in there. Get up there.”
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3:58 am
A woman calling from Camp Mystic pleaded with the dispatcher, “Send someone here to save us.”
The panicked dispatcher cut her off and said they were taking “a lot of calls about flooding” and advised the woman to get to the highest point she could. “We are working on it as fast as we can,” he said.
The woman pleading for help appeared confused.
The woman replied, “There is water everywhere, we can’t move. We are in a room upstairs and the water is rising.” “What should we do if the water is above the room?”
After the call was disconnected, the woman called back to repeat her increasingly frantic questions.
“How will we reach the roof if the water is so high?” he asked.
Asked when help would arrive, the dispatcher responded, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
A few minutes later, sounds of shouting could be heard in the background, when a worker at the camp told the dispatcher that a wall had been destroyed. “We need help,” the woman says desperately.
Flooding at Camp Mystic killed 25 girls and two teen counselors, and the owner of the all-girls camp also died.
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4:19 am
A woman who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Camp Mystic tells a dispatcher that they found campers.
“Our two little girls came down from the river,” the woman says. “And we’ve reached them but I’m not sure how many other people are there,” she says, her voice trembling.
She says the girls are at her house, and they are the only ones she has seen at the moment.
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4:22 am
A man tells the dispatcher that he is trapped in a room in a building with water almost reaching his head.
The dispatcher asks if he can climb to the top of the building.
“No, I can’t!” The man says anxiously. He tells the dispatcher that a window has been broken and water is rushing in. The man yells, “I’m inside the building. I’m trapped in this room. I can’t get out.”
The dispatcher tells him that they are sending people, trying to get them there soon. He leaves the call saying, “The best thing I can tell you is to try to keep your head above water.”
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4:24 am
A woman who says she is at Camp La Junta says she is trapped in a building.
“Help, the building is collapsing. There’s too much water. Oh, no. Oh, no,” she says, and tells the dispatcher her name over and over again.
The dispatcher told him that help was coming, but they were having trouble reaching many places because of the water. But they are trying, he says.
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4:31 am
A man called 911 to report that he and his family were in the attic of a home on Highway 39, but the water was about to reach the windows.
The dispatcher says she can’t tell them to do anything else.
A woman interrupts the call: “We’re going to die,” she says, sobbing. “I have a baby. She can’t hold her breath. If you come in and the water is too high and you say hold your breath, she can’t hold her breath.”
The dispatcher replies: “I understand that but our rescue units will do everything they can.”
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5:00 am
Bradley Perry, a firefighter, calmly tells a dispatcher that he is trapped in a tree that has begun to bend.
“If I don’t find a helicopter I will die. Is that possible?” He asked, explaining: “I’ve got maybe five minutes left and I’m dead.”
Perry with his wife Tina Perry and their RV. Described seeing it flowing. He feared that his wife was already dead.
“We’re trying to get people out as quickly as we can,” the dispatcher told Perry.
“Okay, thanks,” he replied.
Bradley Perry did not survive. Later his wife was found alive clinging to a tree.
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6:10 am
A woman called to report that her children were trapped inside an RV trailer. The flood is so severe that it has started carrying away the trailer.
“It’s going on,” the woman said. “A car parked nearby has disappeared.”
The dispatcher assured the woman that she would send help as soon as possible.
“I need someone here immediately,” the caller said.
Two minutes later, the woman calls back, and becomes angry when the dispatcher says she is sending help “as soon as possible.”
“No. Not as soon as possible. I need someone right now. Now!” She says it emphatically. She keeps repeating “now” over and over again until the call gets disconnected.
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associated Press Writer John Hanna in Topeka, kansasJamie Stengel In dallas And in the Safiyah puzzle montgomeryAlabama, contributed to this report.