AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — The Kerrville Police Department revealed Thursday the agency will release unredacted audio of the 911 calls from the deadly flooding over the July 4 weekend.
This will happen as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests from eight media outlets, including NewsNation affiliate KXAN.
In a video message posted on the Kerrville Police Facebook page, Chief Chris McCall cautioned people in the community about why this action was going to happen.
“The information about to be released will be difficult for some families and those impacted will be difficult to hear,” McCall said. “What you will hear on these calls is distressing, and some callers did not survive. We ask that you keep them and their families, loved ones and friends in your thoughts and prayers.”
At least 117 people died in the floods in Kerr County alone. That includes 25 young girls at Camp Mystic and two counselors.
McCall added that the dispatch center was only staffed with two people at the time emergency calls came in. He also revealed that over the next six hours, the staff answered 435 calls. Because of the high volume, some of those calls were sent to other nearby dispatch centers — a move allowed in situations like this. Calls came in from across the county, as Kerrville police handled 911 calls for the region.
“I’m proud of our telecommunicators, operators, these public safety team members showed incredible perseverance as they faced high call volumes and did their best to provide assistance and comfort to every caller,” McCall said.
Kerrville police said it is putting the 911 calls on DVD and will mail them out to the media outlets that requested them.
On Thursday, almost five months after the initial request, police sent KXAN a letter indicating they had sought a state opinion on releasing the 911 calls and learned two weeks ago that the responsive records were to be released in full.
“We received an Attorney General’s opinion on 11/18/25… which stated we are not allowed to redact originating 911 phone numbers and 911 originating addresses that are audibly said by the caller,” a Kerrville police records supervisor wrote regarding the reason for the delay.
KXAN Investigative Reporter Kelly Wiley contributed to this report.