Federal and local agencies say more than 13,000 people have been rescued so far in the Houston areas because of Harvey.
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Houston has opened the Toyota Center, home of the Houston Rockets, to handle evacuees. The arena will ease overflow at the George R. Brown Convention Center, which is now sheltering 10,000 people.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said his agency rescued about 4,100 people, while Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña says his agency has rescued more than 3,000. The Harris County Sheriff's Office says it's rescued more than 3,000 people, and the Coast Guard also says it's rescued around 3,000 people.
Among the areas that needed to be evacuated was a neighborhood northeast of Houston that's near a chemical company plant.
Arkema said the plant in Crosby, which makes organic peroxides, is at risk of exploding.
Officials have reported more than a dozens deaths from Harvey.
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The rains in Cedar Bayou, near Mont Belvieu, Texas, reached 51.88 inches as of 3:30 p.m. CDT, which is a record for both Texas and the continental United States.
The total breaks the previous record of 48 inches set in 1978 in Medina, Texas by Tropical Storm Amelia.
Harvey has gained a bit of strength but stayed a tropical storm. Its winds increased from 45 mph to 50 mph. But the National Hurricane Center says that reading Tuesday afternoon may be unusual because it was from a low flying hurricane hunter airplane.
Forecasters say heavy rains are continuing to spread over southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana.
The rain totals in Cedar Bayou do not quite pass the 52 inches from tropical cyclone Hiki in Kauai, Hawaii, in 1950, which was before Hawaii became a state.
Already 14 spots in Houston have recorded more than 40 inches of rain and 36 different locations in Houston have recorded more than 3 feet of rain. The rain totals for Harris County are averaging 35 to 40 inches.
Harris County Flood Warning System reports (as of 2 p.m. CDT)
51.68” Cedar Bayou at FM 1492 in eastern Harris Co. just west of Mount Belvieu
44.76” Berry Bayou at Forest Oaks Blvd.in the Galena Park Ave.
44.44” Berry Bayou at Nevada Ave.
43.52” Willow Spring Bayou at Fairmount Parkway in the Deer Park Area
43.48” Little Vince Bayou at Burke Rd. in the Deer Park area
42.60” Little Vince Bayou at Jackson Ave. in the Galena Park area
Information from the Associated Press and Spectrum News Networks contributed to this report.