- In the aftermath of the July 4th flood in Central Texas, help poured in from near and far.

That's our focus in a special report on "Austin InSight" starting right now.

- [Narrator] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - Hi there, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughhead.

Six weeks after the July 4th and 5th floods in Central Texas, recovery, physical and emotional, has barely begun.

In its wake, this disaster brings a complex blend of sadness for those lost, questions about how and why it happened, and the response, as well as resilience and hope as people in the impacted communities give and receive needed help.

We'll show you in this report from our team's trip to Kerr County right after the flood.

(sad music) - [Witness 1] It's a disaster.

That's what it is.

A catastrophe.

- [Witness 2] This was just like any other year for 4th of July.

The storm woke us up.

It was thunder and lightning.

- [Witness 3] You look at this stuff and this damage, and you would say, "Water did this?"

(sad music continues) (sad music continues) (river roaring) - [Witness 4] Since it had risen that high that we never expected, I assumed it could...

I didn't know what it was gonna do next.

- [Reporter 1] We heard people screaming, Sue, and I'm assuming it is that gentleman who first responders are trying to help out right there.

And that water is moving fast.

- [Reporter 2] Rescue teams have been working through the night to find survivors as more than 20 people remain unaccounted for.

- You can feel the anxiety here as parents are waiting to hear word about their child.

- [Witness 5] This was all underwater at one point.

- [Witness 6] We just never have seen this much devastation.

(helicopter blades whirring) - [Witness 7] You can see it on the news, you know, little snippets of video or pictures.

Doesn't do it justice at all.

(sad music continues) (wind blowing) (sad music continues) - [Onlooker 1] There's three left here.

- [Onlooker 2] Oh my gosh.

- The septic alarm for our house went off around 4 AM, and my dad, who was in the upstairs garage apartment, came down to turn it off, and he then came in to the main house, and burst into our room and saying, "Get up.

Water's about to come in the house."

We're okay.

We're all incredibly grateful that we got really, really lucky.

(helicopter whirring) (wind blowing) (helicopter whirring) (wind blowing continues) - We're standing on the remnants of this bridge over the Guadalupe River in Ingram, and it's hard to describe the feeling.

It's honestly eerie.

It's humbling.

And to give you a clue of just how strong this wall of water was here, the guardrails from this bridge have been ripped off, twisted like plastic, and then chucked over on the other side, and on this river bank here.

- You can hear the helicopters, which hardly stop.

So you can basically see where the water just came through here and just demolished everything.

- [Laura] This is not the way Darren Potter wants the world to meet Ingram, Texas where he's lived for a quarter of a century.

- It's just horrific the loss of life on this stretch of river.

It's such a beautiful place.

It's my happy place.

- So the river came all the way?

- Yeah.

- Up here.

- Yep.

It sure did.

It was rushing too.

It wasn't just still water coming up.

It would've pushed a bulldozer down this street.

It just knocked down everything.

- [Laura] Though his neighborhood is near ground zero of the flooding, he's thankful his home only had minimal damage and he and his dog Hank are okay.

- Well, Hank is the national dog of Ingram.

- [Laura] That's not the case for most of his friends and neighbors.

- This white house is totaled.

The brown house is totaled.

- [Laura] Many lost everything, - Including things more valuable than things.

- Do you look at the river differently now?

- I do.

I do.

I try not to because I'm a realist person, but it's still heartbreaking.

- [Laura] And heartbreak has ripped through this community, like the current.

This 50-foot memorial in Kerrville is an ongoing testament to that.

Among the mud-stained clothing, the teddy bears, the flowers, the family photos, this is a quiet place to grieve, pray, and pay respects for those left behind and those looking to help, like this Kerrville couple.

- We have these angel wings that we used to have in an arrangement and just seemed more appropriate not to put 'em on the wall, but to bring 'em down here and put 'em on the fence.

- [Laura] And this volunteer from San Antonio who used his vacation time to aid in the search.

- We were supposed to go to Colorado Springs, but then everything happened and I was like, "I wanna go volunteer."

'Cause we've been seeing videos on TikTok and it hurt because we got kids, you know?

I pray that, you know, all the families that lost somebody, I pray that God brings them comfort, you know, and I pray that God heals them in time.

- [Laura] A prayer shared by many for the men, women, and children whose stories were yet to be written.

Deep in the broken heart of Texas you may think hope is hard to find, but like the river, it surrounds this community, including at Citywest Church where volunteers with Mercy Chefs started serving food the day after the floods.

- We all got on an early flight the next morning and headed straight in.

- [Laura] Mercy Chefs is a non-profit that provides disaster relief, and this particular catastrophe hits home for them.

The group is based on the East coast where volunteers are still supporting communities ravaged by Hurricane Helene.

- A year later, we're still feeding 7 to 8,000 meals a week there.

We knew that we needed to be here because there were so many families that were hurting, whether it was losing a family member, a friend, a child.

Anyone who comes in these doors, even if they are professional chefs who work in restaurants, who own their own restaurants, they come in here and they say, "Look, I'll just take out the trash.

I'll do the dishes."

- We've had probably the best volunteer response in this area that we've ever had.

People are waiting in line to get a shift to be able to come and volunteer.

- I appreciate you.

- All right.

- Thank you so much.

- [Laura] Gary Evans, or Deacon as he's better known, drove 21 hours from North Carolina to be here.

- We had so much stuff, you know, that we are able to give to people.

- [Laura] He's originally from New York where he was once homeless and now he volunteers after disasters around the country.

- You know, I've spoken to people, said that they're from Houston and they're here because when Houston had their flood, people from here went to help them.

And the thing about it that hurts me is that we can't do this every day, you know, that it takes a disaster, it takes loss of life, it takes that type of situation for everybody to come together.

- There is a light here in the midst of complete and utter darkness to see people just come together in a time that is needed.

It's just a really beautiful thing.

- [Laura] In this uncommon time, coming together is a common theme.

You'll find that even in places you might not expect, like Happy Hooves Family Pharmacy in Kerrville.

- When tragedy strikes, especially a natural disaster, you know, you, you run out of home and you leave home and you're not thinking about grabbing your medication.

That's probably the last thing that you're thinking about.

- [Laura] In the aftermath, the pharmacy gave away free emergency supplies of medication.

- You get stung by a bee and you could have an allergic reaction, and anaphylactic shock, or insulin, right?

Like, you know, what are people supposed to do, you know, without insulin?

- [Laura] They also gave free tetanus and hepatitis vaccines for first responders.

- The people in this town are very selfless.

The people in this town have some of the biggest hearts that I've seen.

You know, we couldn't undo the tragedy, but we wanted to at least alleviate as much of, you know, the stress of the tragedy as possible.

(boat engine rumbling) - [Laura] It's that kind of generosity that helped the search and rescue teams as they finished their grueling work.

- We're doing canine operations, drone operations, boats, swift water rescues.

It's not glorious work.

A lot of it's hot, sweaty.

You know, we've had people in the water, you know, waist deep for hours.

- [Laura] Texas Search and Rescue's Patrick Turk is a retired homicide detective, so he's seen a lot but he was especially touched by a recent gesture.

- With the lunches that was provided to us last week, they wrote nice little notes, handwritten notes, and they glued a wooden heart to that note and it said, you know, "Every time you get down or discouraged, keep this wooden heart with you and know that we're praying for you."

So I have that wooden heart still with me right there.

- [Laura] Like Turk, many of these rescuers were retired law enforcement or military, but a number were volunteers with day jobs or college students.

- These are people that don't get paid a dime.

And it's a struggle.

You know, it's hard, you know, mentally to keep the people focused, to keep our volunteers focused.

But it's also hard mentally because we have seen some things that, you know, are difficult to deal with at times.

- Chuck.

(ball squeaking) Chuck.

- [Laura] Tracy Hernandez and Megan Corona are volunteer canine handlers.

- We work at our regular jobs during the week, and in the evenings and weekends we search.

- And we were out here a week ago, and it was hard getting back into the day to day, you know, just, okay, I have to do some laundry and some dishes and, you know, just the normal things.

You know, I think we can all kind of give each other like a look and be like, "You're good, you're good?"

- [Laura] This work is actually personal for Hernandez.

Her own nephew went missing years ago.

- I don't want another family to feel like mine does and have their loved one out there not knowing where.

- Aalta, come.

Let's go.

- [Laura] Joe Huston has been working with search and rescue operations around Texas for more than 25 years.

He brought his two dogs, female Aalta and male Anubis, who himself was rescued as a puppy off the streets in Austin.

(Alta panting) Though sometimes the dogs just wanna be, well, dogs.

- Alta, where you going?

Alta, come.

- [Laura] Huston explained that their skills can be critical in finding the missing.

- Anubis is more agile and he's younger, so he can do longer, harder, more difficult tasks, like a bunch of debris piles.

Come here, guys.

Say hi.

(Joe whistling) He's fearless.

He's done some things I wish he hadn't had done, like jump off a bridge to go get a body.

Alta's more seasoned and more slow.

She tends to be methodical and this is not for everybody.

- [Announcer] Well, that area that was under construction, it is now open to emergency vehicles only.

- [Laura] Austin Harden is the chief of the West Odessa Volunteer Fire Department.

- It can be a exhausting physically.

It can, you know, have some sleepless nights and take a drain at home in your personal life.

And when you come home to your family, you know, sometimes you're just quiet and you just need somebody just to sit there by your side.

- [Laura] His team came to help the Ingram Volunteer Fire Department.

- We're all we got, you know, we gotta lean on each other.

And when you see someone in their darkest day and you get to help 'em, it makes it all worth it knowing that you made a change in someone's life.

- [Laura] Any first responder that served in Kerr County will tell you the work they did after the floods will never leave them.

But the way the community came together on their darkest day will never leave them too.

- I was born and raised in Texas and I don't wanna go anywhere else.

You know what I mean?

You're not gonna find people like this nowhere else.

- [Laura] That's something the river could never wash away.

- It hasn't destroyed the city, it hasn't destroyed their faith and hasn't destroyed their belief in their future and in their communities.

- [Laura] As the community still grapples with grief, the difficult road to rebuilding may just be beginning, but they're not doing it alone.

- We need help in two weeks and in two months.

We're taking care of our own the best we can.

And the community's just stepping up and doing that.

That's what Texans do.

(lively music) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) - As Texans, this story is our story, and thank you to everyone who shared their story with us.

Like the flood, the outpouring of help from around the state and the country is unprecedented.

Rebuilding and healing will take time.

Weeks after the flood, testimony from the recent Legislative Committee hearing in Kerrville reveals a community traumatized.

(water whooshing) - [Onlooker 3] Look at this.

I've never, never... - That was our warning, our screaming neighbors yelling for help.

(water whooshing) (pensive music) - Okay, we move to 3:30 AM, it's different.

Dispatch receives a call from a family on a roof requesting air evacuation.

Now, that's what I consider it's all hands on deck, starting at 3:30 AM (helicopter blades whirring) - My husband opened the door and the river raged and ran through the front and the back door, and took all of our belongings with it.

(water whooshing) (pensive music) - 3:50 AM, call from Casa Bonita advising communities of flooding.

Dispatcher's advice is seek higher ground.

- We went up to higher ground.

I watched 108 RVs float right by me in three RV parks.

(pensive music continues) - 3:57 AM, calls from Camp Mystic, stranded on hill, seeking evacuation.

4:05 AM, multiple reports of cabins off Casa Bonita flooding.

(pensive music continues) - I have numerous folks from our area that have lost family in this event.

And it is my understanding that there were little girls with water around their feet at 2 AM at Mystic and were told, "Stay in your cabin."

(pensive music continues) - 4:24, KCSO Deputy McGee reports he hears kids screaming in the river.

- Watching these screaming kids inside these RVs with the lights still powered on from the batteries after they pulled loose, and them screaming, and hearing crashes and crashes, then tiny homes crashing and more crashing, and get dead silent, and more crashes and more screams.

(pensive music continues) (rain pattering) - 4:35, KCSO tones out Ingram Volunteer Fire Department.

Children trapped in water below Howdy Park.

(engine roaring) 4:46 AM, ETA for swift water rescue boat, he's told 10 minutes.

Deputy Green says these kids don't have 10 minutes.

(pensive music continues) - My daughter was not identified until Thursday the 10th, and the only thing that identified her at all was her charm bracelet.

(pensive music continues) - We had no idea that a 30 to 35-foot wall of water was gonna be coming down the Guadalupe River that morning.

And it came with a force, speed and devastation that no one has ever seen before in this county.

(pensive music continues) - I waited with my mother near my front door for nearly 13 hours in terror, watching my hometown be destroyed, annihilated.

(pensive music continues) My parents bought a cabin out here in 2008.

So this was our regular happy place.

The river that we've loved so much killed them.

(pensive music continues) - We are grieving, we are shaken, but we are not broken.

(pensive music continues) (pensive music ending) - Not broken as the mayor said, but clearly broken hearted as are flood victims in Northwest Travis County who are still coping with trauma and unhappy with the county and state response.

Residents in the Big Sandy Creek neighborhoods say volunteers helped fill in the gaps.

More now from senior multimedia journalist Blair Waltman-Alexin.

(wood clanging) - [Brandy] This is where people came to rest and take it easy.

- [Blair] But there's been no rest for Brandy Gerstner.

Since floodwaters destroyed her home in Big Sandy Creek last month, she's been working to clean up her property nearly every day.

- My daughter and I said goodbye.

We both figured this was it for both of us with the houses floating.

And oh God.

But we all made it.

And again, as our neighbors were not so lucky.

- [Blair] 10 people lost their lives in Travis County.

Three of them lived just across the creek from Gerstner.

Nearly 200 homes were damaged.

(footsteps crunching) While the flood waters are gone, the cleanup continues.

- For three and a half weeks, we've had heavy equipment in here, and I can't even count how many dumpsters have been in here that, again, are all people who have volunteered.

Day 11 was when we first started having county people come in.

- [Blair] Gerstner is one of many residents who have been frustrated by Travis County's response to the floods.

- [Witness 8] Nobody came.

- [Questioner] No fire, no EMS.

No... - Nobody came.

- No sheriff.

- Nobody came for us.

- [Blair] During a legislative hearing in Kerrville, several Leander residents and volunteers said the response was so inadequate that they started organizing their own supplies and security.

- Because like I said, I brought in my own shipping container and tents to protect from the looting.

We had an entire pallet of chainsaws that were donated disappear overnight.

- Red tape in a disaster is ridiculous.

The fact that the city of Leander could not come in because they don't have a previous inter-agency agreement with Travis County in a state of emergency, that makes no sense.

Why would they be turned away?

- I believe having a open and honest conversation about what occurred during the recent flooding events here in Kerr County and also my home of Travis County is gonna lead to solutions that'll help us keep our shared constituencies safe and better prepared for future events.

- [Blair] At the same hearing, Travis County Judge Andy Brown gave a timeline of the county's response.

He said officials were monitoring the weather, which was not expected to impact the Big Sandy Creek area.

By 1 AM, the National Weather Service sent out a flash flood emergency alert at the request of county officials.

Between 2 AM and 7 AM, there were 36 9-1-1 calls for water rescues.

78 first responders were on site according to officials, and by 9 AM, Travis County had issued a disaster declaration.

(machinery beeping faintly) (footsteps crunching) After flood waters receded, residents were left with a whole host of infrastructure problems.

150 homes didn't have water.

Debris was everywhere and there was no way to remove it.

The one bridge into the community had been shifted by flood waters, making it unsafe to drive on.

(engine rumbling) Heavy equipment couldn't get in to help clear the area out until a low water crossing was built several days after the flood.

- Give you a quick update on a couple of different infrastructure projects we have going in the area.

- [Blair] Recently, officials reported that the bridge could be repaired, they've opened up the bidding process for that job and it could take about a month to fix once the repairs start.

Water has been restored to residents and more than 46,000 cubic yards of debris have been removed.

But there's still a lot to go.

- In general, do we have a rough estimate of what the debris removal has cost us so far?

- I would think we spent about roughly a million.

We're probably going to spend another four to five million.

- Today we're gonna really talk about how these people start to rebuild and what recovery looks like.

- [Blair] Officials also announced last week that applications are open for the Travis County Community Fund.

Impacted residents can request financial assistance to help with relief and repairs.

- FEMA will probably pay some things, but they're not gonna pay everything.

This fund is really to help people, like we've talked about, recover in the long term, and the process is gonna take weeks, months, years to happen.

We wanna make sure that we're here for Williamson and Travis County in that long-term recovery.

- In the pig pen, I've been over there cleaning it.

- [Blair] On that Gerstner agrees.

- This kind of devastation, this is a very long-term effort to be made.

- [Blair] It'll take time to remove all of the debris, but Gerstner does hope that something stays permanently: the sense of community.

- My faith in humanity has grown so strong after this.

I just really wish that this could continue.

I hope that this isn't just something that gets lost after this disaster.

- The scars from this summer's catastrophic flooding on the landscape, the economy and the people will be long lasting.

But so is the hopefulness evident in the efforts of thousands of people who converged on the Kerrville area to lend a hand, plus many more who donated to various flood relief funds.

We are a PBS station after all, and so we can't help but point to Fred Rogers and the unforgettable advice that his mother gave him about dealing with difficult times.

- She would say, "Always look for the helpers.

There will always be helpers.

You know, just on the sidelines."

That's why I think that if news programs could make a conscious effort of showing rescue teams, of showing medical people, anybody who is coming into a place where there's a tragedy, to be sure that they include that because if you look for the helpers, you'll know that there's hope.

- That's the spirit behind this special coverage.

And with that in mind, we'll leave you with images of help and hope in action.

Thanks so much for watching.

(lively music) (indistinct talking) - Oh my goodness, one more time.

(lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) (lively music continues) - [Narrator] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in Central Texas.

(happy music)