911 calls during the horrific Texas floods that killed dozens have been released. CBS News' Jason Allen reports.

Texas

Authorities in Texas have released 911 call recordings from the night of historic floods in Kerrville, where over 130 people, including 27 children and their camp counselors, lost their lives. The calls reveal widespread confusion and fear among residents as floodwaters rapidly overtook homes and campsites, with many callers seeking guidance from overwhelmed emergency operators.

Despite pre-positioned resources and forecasts warning of flash flooding, many victims were unprepared for the severity of the disaster. The tragedy has prompted ongoing legislative hearings and discussions in Texas about improving emergency preparedness and communication to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Texas 911 calls depict chaos at Camp Mystic as floods took over

Now, to another Texas story, in the early hours of July 4th, more than 130 lost their lives as those historic floods swept through homes and campsites in Kerrville, Texas, among the victims, 27 children and their camp counselors. Well, now authorities are releasing some of the desperate calls to 911, asking for help. CBS News correspondent Jason Allen is in Kerrville. Jason, we know you're still going through the calls, and they're difficult to listen to. What are you learning as you listen to those tapes? Well, yeah, Reid, and since you and I talked an hour ago about this, you know, we've gone in and we've listened to more of these calls, almost about 200 of them. And the more you go through, what continues to pop out to me is just how unprepared people here were for this, how unexpected it all was. And remember, this is a state that had pre-positioned resources, knew the forecast, was calling for heavy rain in spots there could be flash flooding. But call after call after call is from people going, I don't understand what's happening. There's water in my house. Asking the 911 operators, what do I do? What am I supposed to do? The operators telling them, we have everybody out there. We're trying to get to you, but they can't. The roads are flooded. And people responding, well, where am I supposed to go? Do I get on my cabinets? That's what one woman was asking. Do I get in my attic? Yes, get in your attic, but make sure you have a way of escape. And it's just hours of phone calls from people who are just looking for someone to tell them where they can go to survive this flood. I want to play a couple of calls here that we've picked out. One of them starts with a Polish staff member who was up at Camp Mystic where those 25 girls and two counselors died in the flood. I'm calling for Camp Mystic. The water is almost in our home. Are you in Hunt, Texas? Yes, we are in Hunt, Texas. Camp Mystic. Okay. What I will tell you right now is I'm going to transfer you to the Sheriff's office so they can get your address. What I can tell you right now is we have everybody head in that direction, including water rescues to try and get everybody across the city out and safe, okay? There's four teenagers, four 20-year-olds, actually. Okay. And they're not currently at the house anymore? No, they got washed away. Okay, we do have boats that are headed out there or are out there already working on getting everybody. So they are working on getting everybody who's in the water or affected by the water taken care of, okay? Yeah, I don't know if you can pick that out there, Freed, from that last call, but that caller saying that the house washed away. A lot of these calls are people who are friends or family who know that their family members are in danger here. They were calling in from out of the area or from safe places just trying to get a call in to get help, whether it was to the people who still needed help or was to people that they knew had already gone down the river. You know, I want our viewers to really think about when you hear these calls that in some cases they represent some of the most personal and painful moments in victims' families' lives. And when I hear these calls, knowing that, I always process them as what's the use for the world? How can what's in the calls inform a safer and a better world? Anything coming out of the calls that sort of gives us a clue as to how this can be avoided ever again? I think all of this, Freed, goes toward preparation. And those were some of the questions in the initial hours and they still are now. What went on that morning that helps us avoid this in the future? Now, all of those things are still kind of happening. There are still investigative hearings that are planned by legislators here in the state. There are still processes that are being put in place. But I think that that's one of the big takeaways from some of these calls is getting an idea of who knew what and when. How do we get rescuers out to those people quicker? How do we get those people to know what's going on so they're not having to pick up the phone and ask somebody on the other end, what do I do? What do I do? That's what a lot of these calls show is people were faced with making that call and asking someone to make that decision for them. So much pain for so many families and such a push we have seen even at the Texas legislature for change to make sure that this tragedy never happens again. Jason Allen, we know it's difficult to listen to all of those calls. We appreciate your service to our viewers today in doing so.

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Breakdown