The storms are easing, but many schools, businesses and roads are closed

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune's daily newsletter keeping readers up to date on Texas' most important news.

HOUSTON – Flooding in the Houston area began to recede Monday, allowing residents to return to their homes after days of heavy rains that battered the area and led to hundreds of rescues – including people stranded on roofs – and the damage could assess.

Officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, reported no deaths or major injuries from the flooding. But in North Texas, a 4-year-old boy died after riding in a car that was swept away by fast water, authorities said.

After days of heavy rain in the Houston area and other parts of Southeast Texas, Monday's weather forecast called for mostly sunny skies with a small chance of showers.

“We can absolutely see the light at the end of the tunnel and we are through the worst of this weather event,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, told reporters Monday.

Areas near Lake Livingston, northeast of Houston, received more than 23 inches of rain last week, National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler said. Areas in northeast Harris County, the nation's third-largest county, received rainfall amounts ranging from 6 to nearly 17 inches during the same period.

Hidalgo said 233 people and 186 pets have been rescued in Harris County in the last few days. Active rescue operations ceased Monday and officials moved from the response phase to recovery mode and cleanup operations, she said.

While many of the affected neighborhoods and developments along the San Jacinto River in Harris County were accessible Monday, others remained cut off by flooded roads.

Officials are still determining how many houses were damaged.

“We are a resilient community. I know we will continue to recover from this,” said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

At least five school districts in the Houston area were closed Monday because of the flooding.

Houston is one of the most flood-prone metropolitan areas in the country. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 unleashed historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and led to more than 60,000 rescues.

Most of the city of Houston was not badly affected by last week's rains, except for the Kingwood neighborhood, where some homes and streets were flooded.

Several counties and communities north and east of the Houston region also continued to recover Monday.

“These people have suffered a lot, folks,” Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said Sunday during a Facebook livestream as he rode a boat through a flooded rural neighborhood. There were partially flooded cars and street signs around him.

In Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, a 4-year-old boy died when he was swept away after the vehicle he was riding in became stuck in fast-moving water near the community of Lillian just before 2 a.m. Sunday, a person said Official . The Tarrant County Coroner's Office said the cause of death of the child, who would have turned 5 later this month, was drowning.

Storms dumped 9 inches of rain in six to eight hours in some areas from Central Texas to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Stalley said.

Greg Moss, 68, remained stranded in his mobile home Sunday after leaving his home in eastern Harris County's Channelview community near the San Jacinto River. A day earlier, he had packed up many of his belongings and left before the road to his home was flooded.

“I would be stuck for four days,” Moss said. “So now I can at least go get something to eat.”

Disclosure: Facebook has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. A full list of them can be found here.

We have big things in store for you at the Texas Tribune Festival, September 5-7 in downtown Austin. Join us for three days of big, bold conversations about politics, public policy and the news of the day.