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.

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,

Search crews slogged through thick mud and debris Tuesday in central Texas, where more than 100 people are confirmed dead after catastrophic flooding.

At least 118 people are dead and dozens are still missing after devastating flash floods slammed Texas Hill Country, with water rescues taking place along the Guadalupe River, which rose rapidly early Friday morning to the height of a two-story building.

Texan communities are dealing with the impact of the deadly flash floods along the Guadalupe River, which have killed at least 95 people so far, including 27 (mostly children) from the all-girls Camp Mystic summer camp,

The storms that battered the Hill Country for the last four days began to lighten up, although isolated pockets of heavy rain were still possible.