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.