With more than 170 still missing, communities must reconcile how to pick up the pieces around a waterway that remains both a wellspring and a looming menace.

The Guadalupe River has a history of deadly flooding. Here is a look over the decades. (AP video Marshall Ritzel/Albee Zhang)

In what experts call "Flash Flood Alley," the terrain reacts quickly to rainfall steep slopes, rocky ground, and narrow riverbeds leave little time for warning.

Daniel Morales, assistant chief of the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department, believes that long, flat tone the morning of July Fourth saved lives.

Officials at the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department triggered a flood warning siren last week when the Guadalupe River began to swell

New satellite imagery collected on July 8 shows the aftermath of the devastating flood along the Guadalupe River that swept through the area near Hunt and Kerrville, Texas. Loading... Throughout the area,

Satellite imagery of Camp Mystic and other areas along the Guadalupe River shows the devastating aftermath of the Fourth of July floods in Texas.