While local and state officials in Texas have said they were caught off guard by the severity of the flooding, the region is prone to extreme flooding, Marshall Shepherd, director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia and former president of the American Meteorological Society, told ABC News.

The loss of life is unimaginable. While we are still grappling with what happened, it’s important to understand the historic nature of this flood. It likely already ranks as the third-deadliest flood in Texas history.