The deadly Texas floods have brought the state's approach to land approvals, especially in flood-prone areas, under more scrutiny.

The survival of people in local camps and low-lying areas depended not on official evacuations but on whether they were paying attention, on their own, to weather alerts in the middle of the night.

Over 100 people have died after heavy rain pounded Kerr County, Texas, early Friday, leading to "catastrophic" flooding, the sheriff said.

Nearly a week after deadly floods struck Central Texas, search and rescue teams are continuing to probe debris for those still missing.

Over just two hours, the Guadalupe River at Comfort, Texas, rose from hip-height to three stories tall, sending water weighing as much as the Empire State building downstream roughly every minute it remained at its crest. The force of floodwater is often more powerful and surprising than people imagine.

North Carolina, New Mexico and Texas have all suffered deadly floods in the last week after intense rain storms. Climate change is causing even more rain to fall during the heaviest storms.

As the Guadalupe River swelled from a wall of water heading downstream, sirens blared over the tiny river community of Comfort — a last-ditch warning to get out for those who had missed cellphone alerts and firefighters going street-to-street telling people to get out.