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.

Religion and the river are constant Kerr County touchstones. As residents lean on their faith, they grapple with their relationship to the water.

Family members have identified more than a dozen people who are presumed missing after severe flooding in the Texas Hill Country on Friday.

Shock has turned into grief across Texas where at least 120 people died from flash floods and more were missing as the search for victim