AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

More than 160 people remain missing from the catastrophic floods in Central Texas last week.

At least 119 people have been killed.

But as search crews continue their work, officials expect the death toll to keep growing.

Special correspondent Christopher Booker has our report from Kerr County, Texas, about the latest efforts on the ground.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: In the heart of Texas Hill Country, football coach Tate DeMasco has found a way to give back.

TATE DEMASCO, Mercy Chefs: Who wants to eat?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Through the nonprofit Mercy Chefs, DeMasco is delivering hot meals to victims of last weekend's flooding.

TATE DEMASCO: The first thing was, oh, my gosh, this is where I live.

Look at it.

The next thing was, how are we ever going to get past all this?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: One of the families receiving help is Martha and Miles Murayama.

MARTHA MURAYAMA, Flood Victim: I jumped up and came to the door and he looked out and the water was already above the windows.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Really?

MARTHA MURAYAMA: So he went out the back door and then the water swept him away and he got caught in the outdoor kitchen.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Your husband?

MARTHA MURAYAMA: Yes.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: While Martha's husband, Miles, survived, nearly everything in her home did not.

But, for now, they're leaning on their community.

MARTHA MURAYAMA: We have been blessed and we have had a lot of help from our church,all the guys that had been out and helping us day one.

My daughter and I were ripping out floors, and we had some help from some friends and start cleaning up.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Back at the Mercy Chefs kitchen, volunteers from across the country have prepared more than 10,000 meals since Saturday.

GARY LEBLANC, Founder, Mercy Chefs: Thank you guys.

Love you all.

Appreciate you being with us.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Chef Gary LeBlanc founded the organization.

GARY LEBLANC: We hear so many of the stories.

The ones that really hit me are the first responders that are in here, the search-and-rescue teams that come in to eat, and they sit, they take a few bites and they put their head down in their hands and then you ask them, how are you?

And they just look up with this 1,000-yard-away stare, and they say, I have just seen things today that I can never unsee.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Search teams are now using heavy equipment to peel away layers of tree and debris along the river and finding more victims, like veteran Bill Venus, who served in the Army for 33 years, or 21-year-old Joyce Catherine Badon, who was trapped in a house along the Guadalupe River on July 4.

These satellite images show the scale of devastation along the Guadalupe River.

It's in this low-lying part of Kerr County that's lined with campgrounds like Camp Mystic where, just two days before the floods, state inspectors reportedly signed off on a disaster plan.

The details of that plan are unclear.

Local officials continued to dodge questions about how and when the county alerted residents about the floods.

According to local reports, an area firefighter requested a code red warning as floodwaters rose in the early hours of July 4.

But, today, officials declined to give a timeline for when the county's code red system was activated.

LARRY LEITHA, Sheriff of Kerr County, Texas: We're going to get that answer.

And I know that's going to be asked over and over.

Please understand that we don't have -- we're not running.

We're not going to hide from anything.

That's going to be checked into at a later time.

I wish I could tell you that time.

I don't know that time.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: And, today, President Trump's nominee to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said he would work to improve weather warning communications.

For now, though, the search continues for families and a community seeking answers and closure -- Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: Christopher, there's been so much talk in recent days about the emergency warning system and when and how those alerts were actually delivered.

I know you spent time today with someone who was actually on the receiving end of some of those alerts as the floodwaters were rising.

What did you learn?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Yes, Martha told us that she actually did receive an alert.

The alert came through her phone around 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, and her phone buzzed.

And she said she actually thought it was an Amber Alert, so she reached over and turned it off.

This alert came through really around the same time that she said her neighbor was calling her saying that there was a strange banging on her door.

This is, of course, when the water started to come into her home.

So when her neighbor called, that's when she actually woke her husband up and their story really started.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell us a little bit more about Martha.

I know it's been hard for you and the team to move around there, given all the logistical hurdles.

How did you connect with her?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: So we met Martha this morning when we were traveling around with Tate, the high school football coach.

She lives in a community called Bumblebee Hills, which is in Ingram, Texas, just outside of Hunt, Texas.

We actually connected with Tate this morning as he was picking up his meals before he started his deliveries.

Now, Tate has been doing this since Saturday, so he's been able to move around rather freely.

But as soon as we got into the car, we actually encountered two police checkpoints.

Tate, of course, was waved through, but this is really emblematic of how movement has been restricted.

It's important to note, though, that as soon as we got on the other side of that restricted area, unbelievably, the damage was actually far worse than what you're seeing behind me.

There was massive damage to the trees and also massive damage to properties.

We saw boats flipped outside down,.

We saw giant sheets of metal hanging from trees.

It was it was really substantial.

AMNA NAWAZ: Christopher, you mentioned the movement on the ground being restricted.

We should point out you have covered a number of disasters before.

You have been on the ground here in Texas since Monday night.

Is there something different about the response there?

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: I'd say there is something different.

In other disasters I have covered, there's always a location that serves as a kind of de facto central command.

And this is usually where FEMA will plant their flag.

This is where you can go for press conferences and basically organizational response.

Here, our contact has been almost exclusively with faith-based organizations and state and local authorities.

Now, we have seen throughout the Coast Guard going up and down the river.

So the federal government is here.

But these reports that the federal government is having a really light touch, we can corroborate that.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's Christopher Booker on the ground in Central Texas for us once again tonight.

Christopher, thank you.

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Thank you.