The heartbreaking and tedious work of search teams sifting through debris fields looking for victims of the early July flash flood that devastated the Texas Hill Country and killed dozens of people continues at a slow pace.

Texas emergency management leaders are saying it could be months before all potentially missing victims are located. The Texas Tribune reported that a difficult aspect of the recovery is the uncertainty surrounding some people listed as missing.

Emergency officials say there is no way to know how many people were in the rugged area that night. All they can do is go by reports of people missing who may have been in the area and add them to the list of the missing who were verified to be in the huge six-county flood zone.

What is known is that 132 people are now confirmed dead from the flooding that built up along the Guadalupe River in the overnight darkness and turned the normally slow-moving river into a raging wall that swept away people and buildings in the middle of the night.

The Tribune reported that Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha cautioned during a county meeting Monday that the search for the missing could take up to six months, but setting a time estimate is also difficult. "How long is it going to take? I mean, who knows?" Leitha said.

The latest number of people missing is now estimated by state leaders at 101.

At a media briefing, Governor Greg Abbott said many of those still considered missing were people who had not checked in at a campsite or area hotel. "Those who are missing on this list, he said, "were more difficult to identify because there was no record of them logging in anywhere."

The area hit hardest by the flooding is in the Hill Country of Kerr County, about 70 miles northwest of San Antonio.

The Tribune reported that the deadly flooding could end up being the second-deadliest natural disaster in Texas history.