The body of a young college student who went missing during the devastating Texas floods was found on Monday and has since been brought back to her grieving hometown for burial.

Claire ‘Reese’ Manchaca, a 21-year-old architecture student at the University of Texas at San Antonio, was celebrating the Fourth of July weekend with three friends at a country house in Kerr County.

The entire house, along with Reese and her friends, was swept away when the ’30-foot tsunami wall of water’ surged through, demolishing cabins along the Guadalupe River and destroying everything in its wake.

Following an extensive search, her body was finally found on Monday amid the devastation left behind.

On Wednesday afternoon, Reese was honored with a police escort through the Houston-area community of Porter as she was brought back home to Conroe.

‘All five constable precincts have sent deputies to Kerrville to escort Reese Manchaca back to Montgomery County so she can be laid to rest,’ Mark Keough, the county judge, wrote in a Facebook post.

‘I want to thank all of our Constables for answering the call and providing some comfort to the family during this difficult time.’

Dozens gathered at a busy underpass beneath Grand Parkway North on Wednesday, paying their personal respects as the 21-year-old woman was escorted from the flood’s wreckage to McNutt Funeral Home, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Mark Grimes, a pastor at Caney Creek Cowboy Church, led a group prayer before the procession, where mourners removed their hats in solemn grief, as reported by the outlet. 

Soon after, a cortege of motorcyclists roared through the area, leading a solemn caravan of first responders, family and community members as they paid tribute on Reese’s journey home.

Additional emergency personnel, neighbors and heartbroken strangers stood along the rain-soaked streets, their backs drenched as the solemn convoy slowly passed by. 

Some held signs, one bearing the tender message: ‘You are in our hearts, Reese Manchaca.’ 

‘With all the people, the escort, the motorcycles, the two trucks, it just demonstrates the heart of the people of Montgomery County,’ Keough told KHOU 11 News.

During the holiday weekend, Reese and her three college friends – Ella Cahill, Joyce Badon, and Aidan Heartfield – traveled to a home owned by Aiden’s father in Hunt, Texas, to celebrate Independence Day.

The waterfront home, just steps away from the Guadalupe River, was described as a familiar and frequent gathering spot for the group of friends.

In the early morning hours of July 4, however, catastrophic flooding struck the region as the river surged 26 feet in just 45 minutes – swallowing homes, roads and entire campgrounds with little warning. 

Although the National Weather Service issued a flood watch earlier in the day – and upgraded it to a flash flood emergency around 4am – by then, Reese and her friends were already in the midst of the unfolding disaster. 

The group’s final communication came in a frantic phone call to Aidan’s father, Thad Heartfield, desperately pleading for guidance on what to do, Ella’s mother, Tanya Powell, told Fox News.

‘Aidan was asking his dad what he should do,’ Tanya told the outlet. ‘Water was coming in the house. And he then said that he needed to help Ella because she was struggling to stay on the front porch.’

Before passing the phone to another friend, Aidan said: ‘I’ve got to help Ella and Reese,’ according to Creek Compass.

Then came the voice of Joyce – one of the last people to see Ella alive. 

‘Joyce said they just got washed away,’ Tanya told Fox News. ‘And she said, “Tell my parents that I love them.” And that’s the last we’ve heard from them.’ 

By sunrise, the home where they had been staying had been torn from its foundation, with only a concrete slab remaining. 

On Monday, the bodies of Reese and Joyce were recovered, while Ella was found the following day, on Tuesday.

Aidan, Ella’s boyfriend, has yet to be located as of Thursday afternoon.

After Reese’s body was discovered, her aunt and uncle shared a post, which said: ‘I thank all of the thoughts and Prayers during this time.’

‘Please continue to pray for other folks that are still waiting on word of their lost loved ones and for comfort for the families of the deceased that have been found,’ it added. ‘My heart really hurts.’ 

A total of 173 people are still believed to be missing in Texas days after flash floods killed 120 people during the July Fourth weekend, NBC News reported. 

The huge jump in the number unaccounted for – roughly three times higher than previously said – came after authorities set up a hotline for families to call.

Those reported missing are in Kerr County, where most of the victims have been recovered so far, Governor Greg Abbott said on Tuesday.

The county’s lowlands along the Guadalupe River are filled with youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died. 

Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found.

According to Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections, the flash flood marks the deadliest instance of inland flooding in the US since Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flood on July 31, 1976, which claimed 144 lives.