After hours of waiting and praying in the attic, the water stopped rising and the family was rescued. A first responder helped Matteson, wearing a navy and pink floral dress and quilted white jacket, into the back of a car. Her family survived. Their home was not so lucky.

The Texas Hill Country has been notorious for flash floods caused by the Guadalupe River. Here's why the area is called "Flash Flood Alley."

Catherine Wendlandt, a freelance writer in Texas who has written stories for Chron, attended Camp Mystic as a camper from 2004 to '13, then served as a counselor from 2014 to '16. Wendlandt shared this tribute to camp counselors,

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.

On the night the deadly floodwaters raged down the Guadalupe River in Texas, the National Weather Service forecast office in Austin/San Antonio was missing a key member of its team: the warning coordination meteorologist,

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — More heavy rains in Texas on Sunday temporarily paused a weeklong search for victims of catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River and led to high-water rescues elsewhere as officials warned that the downpours could again cause waterways to surge.

Here's what to know about the deadly flooding, the colossal weather system that drove it and ongoing efforts to identify victims.

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.