HOUSTON _ Emergency officials urged residents across southeastern Texas to find shelter Sunday as Tropical Storm Harvey continued to drench the state, dropping up to 24 inches on Houston in 24 hours and prompting emergency rescues from flooded highways and apartments.
The storm has been blamed for at least two deaths.
With some areas bracing for as much as 40 inches of rain _ about the amount of rainfall many Texas coastal towns get in a year _ the National Weather Service warned that "catastrophic" flooding in the Houston area was expected to worsen and could become "historic."
Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city's police and fire departments had received more than 2,000 calls for rescues and that most major thoroughfares were impassable.
"This is a storm that is testing the city of Houston," Turner said at a news conference. "I know for a fact that the city of Houston will rise to the occasion."
Asked why there was no evacuation order � even in low-lying areas prone to flooding _ Sylvester said the flooding was unprecedented and noted that the city was not in the direct line of the hurricane.
"So which neighborhood would you have to evacuate?" Turner said. "You literally cannot put 6.5 million (people) on the road. If you think the situation right now is bad � you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare."
Earlier in the day, he posted on social media that 911 services were at capacity, and urged residents to call only if they were in "imminent danger."
In Houston, officials said police found the body of a woman in the southwest of the city Saturday night. She is believed to have been trapped as she drove into high water and tried to get out of her vehicle.
More than 36 hours after Harvey hit the Gulf Coast Friday night as a powerful Category 4 storm, the full scope of devastation was unknown. Debris and floodwater covered roads across the small towns and inner-city neighborhoods, in some cases blocking access for emergency crews.
On the coast, emergency officials were still trying to get into blocked areas to assess the damage and conduct search and rescue.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator William "Brock" Long said that although Houston was taking the brunt of the catastrophic rainfall, it was important to remember that "there are many communities inside the state of Texas that are hurting."
Long said FEMA was prepared to be in Texas "for years."
"This disaster recovery _ this disaster _ is going to be a landmark event, he said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We're setting up and gearing up for the next couple of years."
Roy Laird, assistant chief of the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department, said Saturday that three people were dead in Aransas County. Charles Wax, the mayor of Rockport, said Sunday that only one death had been confirmed across the county.
"It's bad and it's not getting better as the rain is still continuing," Wax said Sunday morning, noting that the city hall is under 2 { feet of water and the county courthouse is severely damaged. "All over, the city is devastated."
President Donald Trump said on Twitter Sunday morning that he would visit Texas "as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption."
The state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, praised the response of federal authorities to the deadly storm, saying Texas was getting "absolutely everything we need" from the White House.
"We could not be more appreciative of what the federal government has done, from the president on down," Abbott said on ABC's "This Week."
On the same program, Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, said the president's travel would be planned so as not to interfere with lifesaving activity.
"The president wants to go to show his support," Bossert said. "He doesn't want to go to get in the way, and he's been very clear about that."
In Houston, the nation's fourth-largest metropolitan area with a population of about 6.5 million, the rain flooded vast areas, turning city neighborhoods and low-lying business centers into lakes overnight.
Accidents piled up as people drove the wrong way on the freeway that rings the city. Along the Sam Houston tollway in southeast Houston, construction vehicles, trucks and cars were submerged beneath brown waters that swallowed up side roads and blocked the paths of drivers.
On one partly submerged side road, a group of young men pushed an old blue truck through waters that rose up to their thighs, then hopped into the truck's bed in the rain and made a successful escape.
A column of cars behind them was not so lucky. Vehicles were marooned on a slightly elevated stretch of road with the path behind them and in front blocked by floodwaters and littered with the cars of other drivers who had tried and failed to escape.
"I barely squeezed through the first time," David Martinez said as he sat in his black luxury sedan, the wipers running, the car parked, referring to the flooding behind him. "My plan is to stay here and let this water recede."
Some walked.
For more than three hours, three generations of the Castro clan made a wretched trek through their flooded city.
They had been waiting out the storm Saturday in Yeselia Castro's home, but then the waters began pouring in. They tried putting the children on tables and on the bed to keep out of the water. Their brother-in-law, Jesus, even got on the roof.
"I called 911 like nine times, but nobody came," Yeselia Castro said.
Police boats and a helicopter passed through but didn't stop. Finally, the family decided to flee on their own out the back of the property, where a creek had swollen into a river _ a dangerous trip.
"None of us can swim," Rosalinda, Yeselia's sister, said.
So they began their long trek to Rosalinda's house, several miles away, sometimes through flooded roads and sidewalks. Yeselia had only one rain boot; the other had been sucked away by water as she escaped, so she was making the trek barefoot.
Rosalinda was also barefoot. She had given her sandals to her mother, Ofelia, who swaddled a Chihuahua, Nina, in a sweater wrapped with a plastic bag to keep out the rain.
The family had only one umbrella among them. Soaking wet, they held hands as they walked, cars passing them on the inundated roads along the Gulf Freeway.
Overnight, emergency officials in Houston received more than 1,000 calls for high-water rescues, and by Sunday services had shifted from vehicle to residential rescues, said John Cannon, a spokesman for Houston's Emergency Operations Center.
In a stream of public safety messages on social media, officials urged residents escaping rising water to climb to their roofs, not their attics, and to carry axes and hammers.
Houston officials said teams evacuated two apartment complexes early Sunday on the north side of the city and took residents by bus to a Red Cross shelter, which had 197 early Sunday morning.
"There is flooding all over this city," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a video early Sunday morning, noting the rain was likely to continue for hours. "Please, please, please stay home."
Emergency responders carrying flashlights were moving scores of residents _ including the elderly and small children _ to safety by boat, but some residents on the second floor decided to stay, Acevedo said.
"Look how high this is," Acevedo said as his camera scanned the flooded parking lot. I'm 6 foot tall and I'm waist deep."
A little later, he sighed.
"It breaks your heart for our city and our state," he said. "But it's Texas. We'll get through it."
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(Special correspondent Jarvie reported from Atlanta. Times photographer Robert Gauthier contributed to this report.)
