Quotative for 'to voice concern'?

"Hey, uh... guys," I exclaimed, "it looks like it's getting bigger..."

Exclaimed means: cry out suddenly in surprise, strong emotion, or pain.

Although I can't find the quotative usage in a dictionary, WordNet comes close:

• He gulped for help after choking on a big piece of meat

I'm quite familiar with gulp being used in this way.

"Hey, uh ... guys," I gulped, "it looks like it's getting bigger ...."

Killerk, on HiNative addresses the semantics:

To gulp means to "swallow", but this is done when a person is nervous, stressed, or scared.

Examples of the quotative usage on the internet include:

• “I’ve always admired Churchill,” he gulped as he ended his tour of a new exhibition, Churchill and the Great Republic, in the Library of Congress.

[Elaine Monaghan, The Times, 2004]

• "For God's sake I'm in agony," he gulped.

[Karen Bate; Salisbury Journal; 2015]