In the wee hours last Friday morning, the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes in Hunt, Texas. Like all flash floods, this record-breaking water swell resulted from a large amount of rain that drenched one area over a relatively short amount of time.

At least 70 people have died and many children are missing in the Texas Hill Country after catastrophic flooding that left officials struggling to explain whether they did enough to warn people of the fast-rising waters.