AMNA NAWAZ: For a closer look at how people on the ground are managing the crisis, we turn now to Austin Dickson, the CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which has been collecting donations through the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund to help recovery efforts.

Austin, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

AUSTIN DICKSON, CEO, Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country: Hello, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, I just can't say enough how much our thoughts are with you and with everyone in the community.

I understand you actually knew personally some of the leaders at Camp Mystic and others who were tragically lost in these floods.

We're so sorry for your loss.

Is there anything that you want to share with us about them and what they meant to this community?

AUSTIN DICKSON: Thank you.

Yes, that is my experience.

And my experience is emblematic of so many people in our community.

Kerrville is a town of about 25,000 people in a county of Kerr County of 50,000 people.

Everybody knows everybody.

And so in a tragic event like this, we're all connected to people who have been lost.

I was personal friends with three people who were swept away and have been identified as deceased at this time.

And I'm also family friends with someone who lost one of their granddaughters who was a camper at Camp Mystic.

My contacts who were swept away that I knew, one was our high school soccer coach.

He and his wife and two children were swept away.

I also worked very closely on many projects with a pillar of our community, Dick Eastland, who was an owner and director of Camp Mystic, who died during the flood saving campers on his property.

And I also knew Jane Ragsdale, who was the director and owner of Heart O' the Hills Cam, another summer camp in the Hunt area.

These folks are just a few of the names of people who have died, pillars of the community, have given their all to our area and to Texas, and ultimately lost their lives in this flood.

AMNA NAWAZ: Austin, we're so very sorry for your loss and for everyone else's there.

And we should share that your home, thankfully, your family are safe amid all of this.

But we have seen from the pictures how deep and how devastating the damage is.

We heard Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick earlier saying this is the toughest disaster he has ever been a part of in the state of Texas.

Do you agree with that?

What is it like on the ground right now?

AUSTIN DICKSON: Words are hard to find to describe what it is that we're seeing.

And so I -- the lieutenant governor has a broader sense of what he has seen in our state certainly that I have.

I know that I crossed the Guadalupe River multiple times a day between work and home.

I know that I kayak on the river.

And like many people, I woke up on the Fourth of July with in-laws in town visiting, with plans for a barbecue and board games and a fun day.

We were thinking about actually maybe going down to the river because it was mild temperatures.

And everything changed.

And now the devastation is something that, I mean, it looks like something from a movie.

We have got over 20 miles of downed trees throughout the river, floodplain.

A lot of these trees are called bald cypress trees.

Some are 200 years old, very, very thick and beautiful.

And they have been snapped like twigs.

We have got refrigerators and washing machines, cars, boats, all sorts of stuff that is stuck up in the trees because the water rose so high.

The cleanup is going to be massive once the authorities in place at the federal, state and local level finish the search-and-rescue operations looking for anybody who is alive in the rubble.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know you and your organization are collecting donations.

Tell us about the response so far.

Do you have support or resources from the federal and state level?

And what do you need most desperately right now?

AUSTIN DICKSON: Right now, what I'm hearing is that we have all the supplies, all the tools and all the food that we need to conduct search-and-rescue.

We have reunited many people, campers with families.

That's still ongoing, but everybody has the stuff they need for now.

And so the easiest way is to make an online gift and donation and not physically come to Kerrville and Kerr County.

We do know that, after floods, rivers are contaminated, and so it's not recommended that people get near the water unless they're a part of a professional search-and-rescue.

So, for our efforts at the community foundation, we are solely focused on fund-raising from the American public.

And then we will be making grants to local vetted nonprofit organizations, first responder entities, and everybody else that's helping with the recovery.

Right now, we're getting a donation about every second online.

I have got a team of volunteers here, accepting phone calls to take donations online and in person.

Our bank has converted itself into a donation station.

And we're doing all we can to just respond to the generosity, the love and the grief of Americans, and, frankly, everybody all over the world.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, we are holding you and everyone in the community in our thoughts.

We're so grateful you could take the time to speak with us.

That is Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, joining us tonight.

Thank you, Austin.

AUSTIN DICKSON: Thank you, Amna.