It was still dark out in Fort Smith, Ark., as Debbie Stevens tended to her newspaper delivery route as she had for more than 20 years.

That’s when her gray Mazda S.U.V. was swept up by quickly rising floodwaters from heavy rainfall. She first called her mother-in-law, who was also driving a paper route, but hung up and called 911 at 4:38 a.m., as the water rose to her car window. Ms. Stevens, 47, spent the next 22 minutes on the phone with an emergency dispatcher frantically pleading for help and saying that she could not swim.

The dispatcher, Donna Reneau, repeatedly told a sobbing Ms. Stevens to calm down. “This will teach you next time, don’t drive in the water,” she said, according to a recording of the call that was released by the police. “You put yourself in danger,” she added.

Ms. Stevens drowned in her vehicle on Aug. 24 before emergency responders reached her, according to a police statement. Audio from the 911 call captured her last moments, and at times Ms. Reneau seemed frustrated and dismissive of Ms. Stevens’s panic.

Ms. Reneau did not respond to phone calls or emails requesting comment on Sunday.

Aric Mitchell, a spokesman for the Fort Smith Police Department, said that Ms. Reneau, a certified training operator, had handed in her resignation on Aug. 9. Ms. Stevens’s call was taken during her last shift, he said.

The police statement called the operator’s words “calloused and uncaring at times,” but said “sincere efforts were being made to locate and save Mrs. Stevens.”

“We were working diligently to get to her; we were doing everything that we possibly could to save her,” Danny Baker, the department’s interim chief, said during a news conference on Thursday.

“None of us take this lightly,” he said. “It’s never an easy thing to have an opportunity to save someone’s life and then not be able to do that.”

“I know that that dispatcher is equally upset about the outcome of this and the fact that she was not able to save Mrs. Stevens,” he added.

Mr. Mitchell said that the had department received several flood-related calls that night, and that there had been no other fatalities. The department was compiling Ms. Reneau’s employment record, which Mr. Mitchell described as “largely clean.”

Minutes after Ms. Stevens called, the Fire Department and a police unit were dispatched to the scene. The emergency responders arrived in fewer than 10 minutes, but they could not locate Ms. Stevens’s vehicle, the statement said.

The flash flood had swept Ms. Stevens’s vehicle off the road and into a copse of trees. The water was rising around her car as she waited for rescue.

“It’s all the way up to my neck,” Ms. Stevens said to Ms. Reneau. “I’m the only one in the vehicle with all of my papers floating around me. Please help me. I don’t want to die.”

Ms. Reneau responded: “You’re not going to die. Just hold on.”

The main roadways were blocked by water. A boat was requested just before the call between Ms. Stevens and the dispatcher was disconnected, according to the police.

Moments before the call ended, Ms. Stevens started screaming that she could not breathe. “Ms. Debbie, you are breathing just fine because you are screaming at me,” Ms. Reneau responded. “I need you to calm down.”

When Ms. Stevens did not respond, Ms. Reneau said, “Oh, my God, it sounds like she’s underwater now.”

The responders located Ms. Stevens’s vehicle shortly after the call ended, but the rushing water prevented an officer, armed with a life vest and a rope, from reaching the vehicle. The rescue boat arrived nearly 15 minutes later, and it took the responders another 45 minutes to make their way to her.

Just before 6 a.m., rescuers pulled Ms. Stevens from the vehicle and tried to resuscitate her, but she had already drowned, the police statement said.

“I am heartbroken for this tragic loss of life and my prayers are with Debra’s family and friends,” Chief Baker said in the statement.

“All of our first responders who attempted to save Mrs. Stevens are distraught over the outcome,” he said. “For every one of us, saving lives is at the very core of who we are and why we do what we do. When we are unsuccessful, it hurts.”

After the episode, the Police Department started an internal investigation into response policies and dispatch center training, Chief Baker said at the news conference. Ms. Reneau will not be investigated because she no longer works for the department, he said.

Chief Baker told KFTA, a local television station, that no action would be taken against Ms. Reneau because she had not done anything criminally wrong.

Rebeca Stewart, Ms. Stevens’s sister-in-law, told the station that Ms. Stevens “had a heart of gold and would do anything for anyone.”

Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.

Mariel Padilla is a reporter covering national breaking news for the Express desk, based in New York. @marielpadilla_

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