Although forecasters expected storms to begin tapering off in southeastern Texas, high waters continued to close some roads and left residents facing lengthy cleanups in neighbourhoods where rising river levels led to weekend evacuation orders.
Houston is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the country. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and resulted in more than 60,000 rescues.
In one soggy area of suburban Houston, school officials in Channelview cancelled classes and said a survey of their employees found many of them had experienced circumstances that would prevent them from coming to work.
“These folks have suffered much, people,” Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said on Sunday during a Facebook livestream as he rode a boat through a rural flooded neighbourhood. Partially submerged cars and street signs peeked above the water around him.
Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District, said on Sunday “things are improving slowly”.Harris is the US’s third-largest county and includes Houston.
“We have water going down on our river systems,” Mr Lindner said. The San Jacinto River crested on Saturday, he said.
So far, Sunday’s additional rain did not seem to be causing any new flooding but he urged people to still be cautious, noting that many areas were still flooded.
“We really need everybody to give it just another day before we feel comfortable that conditions are safe,” Mr Lindner said.
In the past week, areas near Lake Livingston, located northeast of Houston, received upwards of 23 inches of rain, National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler said on Sunday.