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.”

The first weather emergency alert sent by the National Weather Service with urgent language instructing people to "seek higher ground now" was sent at 4:03 a.m. local time.