On July 4th, journalist Jeff Goodell stood on his back porch in Austin, Texas, with a bad feeling in his gut.

He was watching a storm roll through.

You know, I live in Texas.

We tend to have intense rainfalls.

It's not an uncommon thing.

But this was particularly intense.

This was, I don't like to use this phrase, but I will.

It's applicable here, biblical.

I mean, it felt, you know, like something else.

And I looked at my wife who was standing with me and said,

this is going to be trouble. Jeff writes about climate disasters, heat, but also flooding.

He's got a book called The Water Will Come. Last week, it did.

There was water everywhere. I mean, water flooding, running into the understory of our house,

you know, running through our driveway, out the streets. I mean, it was a major event.

By now, you know what Jeff was seeing. The same rainstorm had just blown through the hill country, west of Austin.

Only there, the consequences were deadly.

Turning now to the deadly catastrophic flooding in central Texas that is leading to desperate searches for survivors tonight.

More than 20 children at this hour are missing.

CBS News is learning the worst hit areas of the Lone Star State saw 12 inches of rain per hour on July 4th.

Holmes swept away after the rising Guadalupe River blasted through Texas Hill Country in the dark of night.

In the days since, it's been hard not to focus on stories of survival and stories of loss.

More than 100 people were killed when the water rushed in.

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