The governor of Texas said Sunday that the "long haul" of recovery from Hurricane Harvey was just beginning, appealing to Congress to provide tens of billions of dollars needed for reconstruction.

In the nation's fourth-largest city of Houston, which was devastated by record-setting rainfall, many residents whose homes had flooded returned over the weekend to begin removing soggy drywall, soaked carpets and ruined possessions.

A week of flooding damaged 40,000 to 50,000 homes in Houston and sent tens of thousands of people fleeing to emergency shelters.

"The rebuilding process, this is where the long haul begins," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on "Fox News Sunday." "This is where we come to the part where Congress plays a role."

The White House has asked Congress for $7.85 billion for Harvey-related "response and initial recovery efforts," calling it a "down payment" on the long-term cost of recovering from the record flooding.

In the end, Abbott said, recovery will cost "well over $120 billion, probably $150 billion to $180 billion."

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has said the administration will later seek an additional $6.7 billion for disaster relief.

The storm was blamed for at least 42 deaths, with The Houston Chronicle saying the toll of people who died or were feared dead was more than 50.

Yet Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner urged people who had been planning on travelling to Houston not to cancel their trips, saying the city was now 95 percent dry.

"I want to be very clear. Yes, it was a very serious storm, historic, unprecedented, but the city of Houston is open for business."

"And so if you have a conference, convention, concert, any of those things that were planning to come to this city, we are still ready to welcome you," Turner said, adding that city employees would be back at work on Tuesday, following the US Labor Day holiday on Monday.

- 'Can-do city' -

Houston is a regional hub and also a center of the US petroleum industry, with the surrounding Gulf Coast area home to about a third of the United States' refining capacity.

"That is a can-do city, we're not going to engage in a pity party," Turner said. He appeared Sunday on both CBS and NBC.

While Houston was getting back to a semblance of normality, floodwaters in other hard-hit cities nearby such as Rockport, Beaumont and Port Arthur were slower to recede.

Meanwhile, many Americans marked a "National Day of Prayer" on Sunday for victims of the storm.

In Washington, President Donald Trump and his wife Melania attended morning services at St. John's Church, a short distance from the White House.

In Houston, an overflow crowd packed the 900-seat sanctuary of the historically black Fifth Ward Church of Christ, with many worshippers dressed in their Sunday best while others came in T-shirts.

Barney Smith, 66, was among the estimated 70 or more church members who were impacted by Harvey.

"I had to take everything out. Everything," he told AFP, saying his home had been swamped by three feet (one meter) of water.

As he spoke, people were picking out supplies in a large hall where a relief station was stocked with stacks of donated clothes, food and other necessities.

Britt Lively, a businessman and member of the Franklin Church of Christ, drove two hours to the Fifth Ward church with a livestock trailer full of donations. Members also set up a BBQ pit in the parking lot and were cooking 5,000 hot dogs.

"It don't matter if you're black, white, Latino, we're here to help," said the 37-year-old, who along with the rest of his church group is white.

"One day, we'll need them."

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