Heavy rains fell quickly in the predawn hours of Friday in the Texas Hill Country, causing the Gaudalupe River to rise 26 feet in just 45 minutes.

Growing up near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, could sometimes feel like living near a volcano. I was born two blocks away from the gorgeous river that flows from the Hill Country to the Gulf of Mexico, just one year before the devastating and deadly 1987 flash flood, often described around town as the “big one.”

Flash floods in Texas have killed at more than 80 people, many of them children.