As floodwaters from Beryl rushed through the streets, crews carried out 47 high water rescues across Harris County, which encompasses Houston, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told reporters.

Street flooding is still significant Monday afternoon, Hidalgo said, and she urged residents to stay home.

In terms of storm surge, Hidalgo said, "Things turned out a little bit better than we expected."

Beryl's rough winds have caused more than 2 million customers to lose power across the state. Hidalgo said there will be a clearer picture Tuesday on the timeline for power restoration in Harris County.

In Sugar Land, Texas, just outside of Houston, Beryl has dumped 5 to 10 inches of rain and knocked out power to most of the population, according to Mayor Joe Zimmerman.

"The hurricane passed almost right over us," Zimmerman told ABC News Live.

But he added, "We were ready."

"We had activated our emergency operations center yesterday at noon. We had staff on two, 12-hour shifts, and that staff was able to keep everything up and running," he said.

"It was a considerable wind event. We've got trees down, we've got branches down, we've got inlets clogged up," the mayor said. "But we've got crews out there, we've got our public works crews out there, police, fire, EMS, everybody's available. I think Sugar Land weathered the storm as well as we could."

Tropical Storm Beryl has inundated the Houston area with 5 to 9 inches of rain as it continues to slam east Texas with flooding and gusty winds.

Wind gusts reached 84 mph in Houston and 94 mph in Freeport, Texas.

Beryl has also brought tornadoes to east Texas. A tornado watch is in effect through Monday night in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The storm will steadily weaken through the afternoon. Beryl was the earliest in the season hurricane to make landfall in Texas since Bonnie in 1986.

-ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke

Beryl is expected to remain a tropical storm as its center passes near Lufkin in east Texas on Monday night.

By Tuesday morning, Beryl will reach Arkansas and is expected to weaken to a tropical depression.

Rain from Beryl will hit Indiana Tuesday morning and then move into Detroit Tuesday night.

Beryl’s remnants will then drop heavy rain in Vermont on Wednesday.

The rain will reach Washington, D.C., Wednesday evening and into Philadelphia and New York City overnight into Thursday morning. Flash flooding is possible.

Hurricane Beryl’s top sustained winds increased to 80 mph, as the storm moved toward the Texas coast.

The Category 1 hurricane was about 30 miles south-southwest of Matagorda at about 1 a.m. local time. It was about 95 miles from Corpus Christi.

The storm was moving north-northwest at about 10 mph, with a turn toward the north expected this morning.

Beryl’s center is expected during the next several hours to make landfall on the middle Texas coast.

-ABC News’ Richard Von Ohlen