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 recent disaster has some thinking back to a similar tragedy almost 40 years ago that occurred in the same month and nearly the same place.

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.

Dr. Joanne Sotelo joined Marissa Perlman to discuss talking to kids about tragedies like the Texas floods.

According to local authorities, at least 109 people died on July 4 and 5, most of which were swept up in floodwaters from campgrounds along the Guadalupe River. That’s just shy of the 118 deaths reported as a result of Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Local officials have faced angry questions about whether they could have warned people of dangerous flash floods in Texas Hill Country sooner. Rescue teams from neighboring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for survivors,