Heartbreaking photos show Houston's devastating flooding from the sky

By Tuesday, more than 49 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Houston. Tens of thousands of people have taken refuge in shelters while they wait for the floodwaters to recede. The coastal areas of Rockport and Port Aransas, which are close to where the storm made its first landfall, were heavily damaged; the second landfall caused dramatic flooding in Beaumont and Port Arthur as well.

The Associated Press flew over the Houston area Tuesday — here's what the destruction looked like from the air.

The storm submerged entire neighborhoods, like this area in Humble, Texas, next to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Some homes, like this one in Houston, were covered up to their roofs on Tuesday.

Houses built on higher elevation, like this one in Houston, fared better — though the surrounding land and roadways were still inundated.

Professional and volunteer rescuers traveled the Houston area in boats, plucking desperate residents out of floodwaters and off of roofs.

Spring, Texas, an area north of downtown Houston, also faced severe inundation.

The flooding engulfed downed wires and caused fires in some buildings. A burned home in Spring, Texas is shown here, surrounded by water.

Water completely transformed streets and parking lots. In this shopping center in Humble, Texas, flooding left massive buildings including a Costco underwater.

Here's what the football and baseball fields at C.E. King High School in Houston looked like on Tuesday.

The Addicks Reservoir, which was built in the 1940s to prevent flooding in downtown Houston, started spilling over on Tuesday morning for the first time in its history.

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That led to major flooding in nearby areas. Residents evacuated their homes near the Addicks Reservoir Tuesday as floodwaters rose.

A small airport near the Addicks Reservoir left these planes on the ground amid rising floodwaters.

George Bush Airport, one of Houston's biggest air travel hubs, has been closed since the storm made landfall.

The rainfall and flooding turned highways like Interstate 10 into waterways. The elevated portions of the roads became makeshift boat-launch sites.

Interstate 69, which runs through Houston, was almost entirely submerged on Tuesday near Humble, Texas.

The rains finally stopped in Houston on Wednesday. But the storm left many areas, including the city's downtown, underwater. The storm made a second landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border early Wednesday morning, and continues to dump rain in parts of both states.