Tragic Calls from Texas Floods Released

Recently, numerous 911 calls from the catastrophic Fourth of July floods in Texas have been made public, painting a heartbreaking picture of the moments leading up to tragedy, particularly at the well-known Camp Mystic, where many young lives were lost.

The recordings capture a chaotic scene, with the desperate voices of children pleading for help echoing in the background.

Some calls reveal the last moments of rescue workers, filled with urgency and anxiety.

One particularly emotional call came from firefighter Bradley Perry, who said, “The tree I’m in is starting to lean and looks like it’s going to fall. Are there any helicopters nearby? I think we have about five minutes left.” Sadly, those five minutes passed without any helicopter arriving, and Perry himself became one of the 137 victims across the state.

The release included over 400 emergency recordings from Kerr County and Texas officials.

During the early hours of that fateful day, just two dispatchers were on duty, struggling to respond to an unprecedented flood situation as rapidly as possible, but they had to hang up and move to the next emergency.

Among the calls, one woman at Camp Mystic expressed fear, saying, “There’s water everywhere and we can’t move. We’re in a room on the second floor and the water is rising.”

In another call, she pleaded, “How do we get to the roof when the water level is this high? Can you send someone here already? By boat?” But the dispatcher, overwhelmed, could only respond, “I don’t know, I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, another woman downstream reported her rescue of two campers who had floated away. “We’re OK, but we live about a mile away from Camp Mystic and two little girls came down the river,” she stated, although she was unsure how many others remained unaccounted for.

Ultimately, 25 girls and three staff members from Camp Mystic lost their lives in the floods. This camp, which had previously hosted former first lady Laura Bush as a counselor, was just one of many recreational sites along the Guadalupe River destroyed by the rising waters.

In another heartbreaking call, a camp counselor described the frantic situation, noting, “The water is filling up so fast that we can’t get out of the hut.” Amid her distress, the cries of children were audible in the background, asking, “How do I get to the boat?”

Reports indicated the severity of flooding, as families moved quickly from the ground floor to the attic and even to the roof in a matter of 30 to 40 minutes, updating dispatchers with their changing locations.

Time was of the essence for dispatchers, who often had only brief moments to assist callers before moving on to another urgent situation. In one tragic instance, a woman was giving information to an elderly friend trapped in his flooded home, but during the call, communication ceased when he stopped responding.