Two weeks after severe flooding in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said the death toll has increased to at least 135 people. As communities across the area grieve, some are turning to faith. CBS News' Jason Allen spoke to a local pastor searching for answers and looking to heal a devastated community.

Texas

The aftermath of severe flooding in Texas has resulted in at least 135 confirmed deaths, according to Governor Greg Abbott. Search and recovery operations are ongoing, with more than 100 people still missing across several counties. The efforts involve hundreds of volunteers, National Guard troops, and international assistance, including firefighters from the Czech Republic. 

Communities are grappling with loss and trauma, with many turning to faith for solace. Local pastors, such as Ricky Pruitt of the Kerrville Church of Christ, are offering support through vigils, counseling, and community outreach. Mental health services have been established for both survivors and first responders. State officials are also considering improvements to emergency warning systems as recovery work continues.

As Texas flooding death toll rises to 135, many turn to faith

Almost two weeks after severe flooding in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said the death toll has increased and he confirmed that at least 135 people have been killed. This is in addition to the more than 100 people who remain missing across several counties. The governor says that significant progress, though, has been made in the search and recovery efforts, largely thanks to the work of volunteers. What these volunteers are doing, both here in this county as well as Kirk County and counties in between, are changing the face of Texas. We would not be able to be where we are or make it through the recovery process the way that we are without the volume of volunteers that we have. In addition to the approximately 300 National Guard troops helping in those search efforts, 16 firefighters from the Czech Republic are also out there searching for those still missing. And as communities across the area are grieving, many are turning to faith. Jason Allen is in Kerrville, where he spoke with a local pastor searching for answers and looking to heal a devastated community. Do you have conversations with these guys who are out there every day searching, clearing? They've seen some horrible things, but they've also heard the stories about saving some families and some children and some adults and rescuing. So those have been good things to hear. What they're doing out there is just incredible. Ricky Pruitt is a pastor at the Kerrville Church of Christ. He's been holding vigils with youth and making trips to the children's camps in Ingram and Hunt to help clean up. What was that first Sunday like? Ooh. There was just a heaviness in the air and a lot of tears. I mean, do you have people that have been coming to you who just wanna talk and they're looking for some sort of comfort from you? I've had a couple of those conversations. Why is this happening? Why the little children? Why in the middle of the night? I've had those conversations and I just, I'm quick to remind people, I don't know, I don't know. It sounds like there may not be words after something like this to comfort anyone. You don't have to have the right answers because people just wanna know that they're not alone in this mess and in the hurt. I think that's when we get in trouble when we don't have all the right answers. But whenever we're with someone and whether we're trying to help or if we're just hurting with them, I see a lot of healing that happens. There is months of work ahead. How do you convince people that they have enough endurance to carry on with that? I don't know. I don't know how we move forward. I really don't. I don't know what it looks like to say in two months, we're still gonna be finishing up some homes. Because I know that for this first bit of it, it's been a sprint and everybody's helping with everything that they can. And people have warned me, people are gonna leave and the help kind of dries up. And so then what do you do? But I know we're not alone. We're doing this together. And CBS News correspondent, Jason Allen, joins us now from Kerrville with more on this. Jason, this is just an incredibly powerful interview and a powerful story. And I think it helps sometimes to say that he doesn't know when he's being asked the tough questions that people just wanna hear. What else did he have to tell you about some of the ongoing counseling services that are being offered? Yeah, it's a very important thing, Nancy, that's been going on here for the past few days, to care for the people who are out there doing this searching. At the Church of Christ, they've actually set aside a space where there are counselors and there are therapists who are coming in. When we were there, there was a fire department that has brought its entire battalion there to talk. And this was proactive too. This weren't necessarily people who needed the help, but it was just the leaders making sure that the people that they are leading had the tools to deal with what they're dealing with, what they're seeing out there every day, and make sure that if they needed to talk to somebody, they could, again, doing that proactively just to make sure that they can keep doing this work that'll have to go on for a long time. Oh, very long time. And Jason, we had talked about the update from the governor today. What else did we learn from that press conference? And what's the latest on recovery efforts there? Sure, so the recovery efforts are ongoing. There is still a lot of water to search out here. They're bringing in sonar teams. They're still going through all of the debris piles. And we know that that's gonna go on for several months. There were some questions of the governor today about how to help with recovery and also with these warning systems. The legislative session, a new one starts next week. They have not gotten specific with exactly what they wanna put in place for potentially early warning systems yet. They're gonna talk about that. They're talking about how they need to determine what's best for each specific area, what works best. I mean, specifically here, there isn't a lot of cell phone service or cell phone coverage. That's one of the things that got talked about today. Maybe they just need to improve communications in some areas. So this is work that is ongoing. We'll probably start nailing out some of the details of that when we start having committee meetings at the legislature next week. Jason, thank you so much for your continued reporting there.

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