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911 call by drowning Okla. woman released

The Associated Press

PRYOR, Okla. — A drowning Oklahoma woman spent her final moments on a 911 call, desperately trying to steer rescuers to her submerging car on a rural road.

A judge on Monday ordered the release of the 10-minute call made on May 2 by 49-year-old Kimberlyn Rae Kendrick of Pryor after she had driven into floodwaters.

During the call, Kendrick told a 911 operator that she had her nose up against the roof of her car and that she had only inches of air.

In the initial moments of the call, she told the operator that “I’m getting covered up quickly” and to “please hurry, because I’m running out of air and if I climb out of this car I’m going to go down.” Not long after, she said, “I need to get out now. I’m drowning.”

At one point during the call, she said, “Oh my God. I can’t believe that this has happened.”

As the operator assured her that help was on its way, Kendrick said that she was trying to keep calm. She later asked if the operator could hear her, and her voice sounded muffled.

“What can I do right now?” she asked, wanting to know if she should try and exit the vehicle.

Near the end of the 10-minute call, Kendrick again said that “I’m running out of air. I can’t open the window or it will sink the car.”

Moments later, as she continued trying tell authorities where her car was, the recording ends.

District Judge Terry McBride blocked a permanent injunction sought by the woman’s family after several media outlets asked for the recording to be released, citing the Oklahoma Open Records Act. McBride previously granted a temporary injunction prohibiting the tape’s release.

Kendrick’s family had argued the release of the tape would be emotionally traumatic for them.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has said that on the day she drowned, Kendrick was driving about 7:50 p.m. on a rural county road and that she went around the road-closed signs and into floodwaters.

About eight minutes into the call, Kendrick told the operator that “I tried to pull out and turn around and the flood caught me and pulled me back.”

Troopers said her car was swept from the road. It was found completely submerged about 300 feet east of the roadway. Her body was recovered the following day.