Penny Deupree, great granddaughter of ‘The Secret Garden’ author, recounts the climbing, swimming and singing her family did to survive a harrowing night.

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.

The county’s largest city, Kerrville, declined to participate in a joint grant application that would have required a $50,000 contribution. Meanwhile in the nearby community of Comfort, a long, flat-three minute warning sound signifying flood danger helped evacuate the town of 2,

In some ways, out-of-towners were more vulnerable in the July 4 flood. At least 19 of the more than 100 people killed were from the Houston area.

A major flood event also struck the Texas Hill Country in July of 1987 after a series of 17 thunderstorms moved slowly, in succession, over the headwaters of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. Anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of rain fell on the flood-prone areas, now deemed “Flash Flood Alley,” according to a National Weather Service report.

Hill Country residents and volunteers on Tuesday continued picking up the pieces that the deadly waterway left behind days earlier.

It took just 90 minutes for the river to rise more than 30 feet. A look at the historic flood levels now etched into Central Texas history.