A man clinging to a tree on the Guadalupe River calls for a helicopter; a father hustles his family into the attic avoiding the rising waters; a Camp Mystic staffer begs for immediate rescue help. Five months after devastating floods took more than 100 lives in Texas Hill Country, hundreds of released 911 audio files give a harrowing look into the terror endured during the July 4 disaster.
At 3:49 a.m., a caller in a flooded home pleads for help stating, 'I need everything sir. My house is so flooded... I have children here.' The dispatcher instructs him to get to higher ground as the man rallies his family. By 3:58 a.m., a woman from Camp Mystic begs, 'Send someone here to rescue us,' and after cutoffs, she asks in desperation, 'How do we get to the roof if the water is so high?' These recordings paint a heartbreaking image of the floods' devastation.
With each hour, the drama escalates: at 4:19 a.m., another woman reports finding lost campers; a man trapped amid a building's destruction pleads for help; and a woman at Camp La Junta expresses fear as the floodwaters rise around her. The urgency is encapsulated in a chilling call at 4:31 a.m., where a woman sobs, 'We’re gonna die. I have an infant.' Meanwhile, a firefighter named Bradley Perry, stranded in a tree, evokes a solemn urgency, 'I’m going to die if I don’t get a helicopter.' Tragically, he did not survive the ordeal, while his wife was later found alive.
The calls culminate as frantic mothers report children trapped in RV trailers being swept away by the torrential water. The haunting cries echo the desperation of countless families and campers swept into chaos by a natural disaster that altered lives forever. These recordings not only illuminate the tragic event but also emphasize the need for readiness and effective communication during emergencies.
