Cries for help came from the pitch-black woods, from rooftops and from attics that shifted unsteadily as the water rose. Firefighters and police raced to help, having little guidance on where or how.

Here's a chronology of chaotic rescue efforts as a flash flood chewed through the Texas Hill Country before dawn July 4 based on first responder

Top emergency leaders were asleep or out of town. Using recordings of first responder communications, weather service warnings, survivor videos and official testimony, The Associated Press has assembled a chronology of the chaotic rescue effort as a flash flood barreled east through the Hill Country of Central Texas before dawn on July 4.