August 24th at 4:30 in the morning Debbie Stevens called 911 because a flash flood in Arkansas had swept away her vehicle. Scared for her life Debbie pleaded for help but was met with a rude 911 operator. Donna Reneau was first hired as a dispatcher in 2013 and was even awarded “Fire Dispatcher of the Year” by her town’s police department. The day Debbie called was Donna’s last day of work as she had filed to quit weeks earlier. The audio from the phone call was recorded and clearly shows Debbie telling the operator statements such as “I don’t want to die”. The dispatcher responded in ways that made Debbie seem like she caused this for herself and it’s her fault saying things like “I don’t see how you didn’t see it; you had to go right over it” and “this will teach you, next time don’t drive in water”. Debbie even apologized to the responder as if she were an inconvenience for the responder. The statement that responder Donna Reneau made that outraged the public the most happened while Debbie was panicking because her car was filling with water and Donna told her “You’re gonna have to shut up, OK?” Debbie ended up drowning that day.
I find the way Donna handled the situation was not only unprofessional but also impolite. It is unacceptable for a trained professional to treat a person in need of help as a burden. The conversation they had was infuriating but even so despite this, I do not think the call negatively impacted the probability that Debbie would survive the flooding. First responders were alerted right away and the factors that lead to her death have nothing to do with the conversation. Local authorities got many calls from individuals being stranded by the flood so they had many people to save, Debbie first called a family member for help before calling 911 and when Debbie did call she was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t determine her exact whereabouts for her rescue. Just because it didn’t affect the likelihood of Debbie surviving doesn’t make the dynamic of the phone call acceptable. Donna was the last person Debbie spoke with and it was a very unpleasant conversation almost attacking Debbie for getting herself into the situation to need rescuing. Debbie certainly made her own mistakes and was probably warned to stay indoors but that doesn’t give a trained professional the right to scold her.
