National Weather Service says 51.88 inches of rain from Tropical Storm Harvey has been officially recorded at Cedar Bayou near Mount Belvieu, marking a new continental U.S. record.
The benchmark was recorded around 3:30 p.m. It's surpassed only by 52 inches from tropical cyclone Hiki recorded in Kauai, Hawaii, in 1950 — nine years before Hawaii became a state.
Harvey, which first made landfall Friday as a hurricane and has persisted as a tropical storm circling over Southeast Texas for days, is not expected to relent just yet.
Heavy rain is forecast to continue in the eastern part of the state, where an additional 6 to 12 inches of rain are possible in spots over the next 24 hours.
In Houston, rains have tapered off, but rescuers are battling severe flooding as they work to help thousands of residents escape swamped homes.