Growing up near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, could sometimes feel like living near a volcano. I was born two blocks away from the gorgeous river that flows from the Hill Country to the Gulf of Mexico, just one year before the devastating and deadly 1987 flash flood, often described around town as the “big one.”

A combination of steep terrain, shallow soil and a moisture-laden weather system that stalled over the Texas Hill Country caused the flash floods that killed at least 79 people Friday. The weather system that caused the flooding was fueled by moist air from the coastal plain that swept up the Hill Country’s steep cliffs,