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.

In the Texas Hill Country, as the search for loved ones lost to the Guadalupe River ends, the search for their belongings begins.

Aaron Parsley, a senior editor at 'Texas Monthly' and former longtime staffer at PEOPLE, recalled being plunged into floodwaters with family members during the deadly storm in Texas on the Fourth of July.

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

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.

Walston drove from his home to the Center Point Bridge on FM 480 near Highway 27, where he shot video of the river below. He recorded nearly 38 minutes of surging water as it rose over 20 feet, carrying massive cypress trees, debris and even a house.

Officials in Kerr County, where the majority of the deaths from the July 4 flash floods occurred, have yet to detail what actions they took in the early hours of the disaster.

The organizations working together to help the flood victims said that 'no additional in-kind donations (clothing, food, supplies) are needed in Kerrville.' They said the best way to help is with monetary donations.

Camille Santana tragically lost her life during the Fourth of July floods that swept through Central Texas. Three other members of her family remain missing.