Teens at the Pot O’ Gold Christian Camp near Comfort, Texas, were swamped by a wall of water as they tried to escape.

Generations of parents sent their daughters to the Christian camp on the Guadalupe. It suffered floods over the years but no one foresaw tragedy.

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.

As Texas mourns lives lost in the recent Hill Country floods, a survivor of the 1987 Guadalupe River flood that killed 10 North Texas teens shares her story of survival, grief, and hope. NBC 5’s Allie Spillyards reports.

Generations of the same family have operated the summer camp since 1939. It counts family members of former president and governors as alumnae.

The devastation in Texas Hill Country isn't the first time Americans have mourned the victims of deadly floodwaters.

Flash floods killed dozens across Texas Hill Country over the holiday weekend as torrential rains swept the region.

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.