Media captionThe BBC's Alex Deakin explains why these storms have happened
As well as telling people not to drive in the fast-flowing waters, city officials warned against allowing children to play in waters that are likely to contain snakes and ants.
Among the worst-hit areas is Greenspoint, a poor, mainly Hispanic district of more than 112,000 people to the north of the city centre.
Footage broadcast in Texas showed Greenspoint families moving belongings and children through floodwaters on air beds and inside a refrigerator.
Image copyrightAPImage captionMore than 70 horses were rescued from rising watersImage copyrightHouston ChronicleImage captionWaters in one spot were 12m higher than the recordImage copyrightAPImage captionRains are expected to ease by TuesdayImage copyrightAP
"Do not think the city is not seeing you," Mayor Sylvester Turner told Greenspoint residents in a press conference.
"It's a situation where all throughout the city, and quite frankly all throughout our region, we're dealing with high water."
At least one of those who died was found in a submerged car, local media reported.
Close to 70 horses were rescued from a flooded stable before police officers were able to lead them to safety through floodwaters.
The city, on the Gulf of Mexico, is prone to heavy rains, and has seen a number of major flooding events in the last year alone.
However, this flood is the largest to strike the city since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, which led to 23 deaths across the state, the City of Houston Twitter account said.
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Gabriel Agbonlahor has made three appearances for England
Aston Villa have suspended striker Gabriel Agbonlahor and begun an investigation after he was allegedly pictured with laughing gas canisters.
According to reports, the 29-year-old was pictured partying in London on the same night Villa were relegated.
Agbonlahor was already on the sidelines after being told he was not fit enough.
He was suspended by Villa earlier this month after he was pictured appearing to hold a shisha pipe while in Dubai, but the club took no further action.
Villa were relegated from the Premier League after losing 1-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.
They are bottom of the table after collecting only 16 points from 34 games.
The West Midlands outfit are also without a manager following the sacking of Frenchman Remi Garde and have been hit by two key resignations.
Former Football Association chairman David Bernstein and Lord King, a former Governor of the Bank of England, both quit the board on Monday.
The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 8:29 pm EDT on April 17, 2016. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this imagery of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash – around 8:30 p.m. EDT on April 17, 2016. A loop of solar material can also be seen rising up off the right limb of the sun.
Credits: NASA/SDO/Goddard
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this imagery of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash – around 8:30 p.m. EDT on April 17, 2016. A loop of solar material can also be seen rising up off the right limb of the sun.
Credits: NASA/SDO/Goddard
A black spot on the sun is visible in the upper right of this image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Such spots are evidence that this is an area of complex magnetic activity on the sun, which can sometimes lead to solar eruptions sending light and radiation out into space. This region produced a solar flare at 8:29 p.m. EDT on April 17, 2016.
Credits: NASA/SDO/Goddard
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center states that "moderate radio blackouts were observed" during the peak of the flare. Such radio blackouts are only ongoing during the course of a flare, and so they have since subsided. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center is the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings and alerts.
This flare is classified as an M6.7 class flare. M-class flares are a tenth the size of the most intense flares, the X-class flares. The number provides more information about its strength. An M2 is twice as intense as an M1, an M3 is three times as intense, etc.
This flare came from an area of complex magnetic activity on the sun – known as an active region, and in this case labeled Active Region 2529 – which has sported a large dark spot, called a sunspot, over the past several days. This sunspot has changed shape and size as it slowly made its way across the sun’s face over the past week and half. For much of that time, it was big enough to be visible from the ground without magnification and is currently large enough that almost five Earths could fit inside. This sunspot will rotate out of our view over the right side of the sun by April 20, 2016. Scientists study such sunspots in order to better understand what causes them to sometimes erupt with solar flares.
Late on Monday, six people, including two girls - one three years old and the other nine months old - were rescued from the ruins of a hotel near the coastal town of Manta.
Elsewhere, funerals for some of those killed were held in Portoviejo and Pedernales, two towns that were the worst hit.
"I fear that figure will go up because we keep on removing rubble," a shaken Mr Correa said in a televised address. "There are signs of life in the rubble, and that is being prioritised."
The quake comes at a time when the oil-producing country is already reeling from the slump in global crude prices.
Image copyrightAFP/Getty ImagesImage captionHundreds of people are feared to have died in the town of PedernalesImage copyrightAFP/Getty ImagesImage captionPedernales was "devastated" in the quake, its mayor said
Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, said some of the group's rarely used emergency funds would be unlocked and given to Ecuador to help it rebuild.
On the scene - Katy Watson, BBC News, El Carmen
An hour inland from Pedernales, we come across a digger working its way through a mound of rubble. This, we are told, was Joselo's house - or what's left of it. A three-storey building turned to rubble.
According to the neighbours, most had got out as soon as the earthquake struck. Joselo was trying to get his car out of the garage when the roof collapsed on top of him. A bloodied pillow and his T-shirt lie tossed in a corner of what now looks like a building site.
Dozens of former residents climb on to the rubble and sift through broken stones to recover whatever belongings remain intact.
"I had to make an unexpected trip out of town," says Emilio Solorzano. "Just as well, otherwise I would have been crushed, I'm standing on my bedroom."
Western Ecuador was hit by a number of strong aftershocks on Monday, the largest of which measured magnitude 5.1.
In Pedernales, close to the epicentre, as many as 400 people are feared dead. Mayor Gabriel Alcivar said the "entire town" had been flattened.
"Pedernales is devastated," he told local media. "Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of tourists staying. There are lots of dead bodies.
"We're trying to do the most we can but there's almost nothing we can do," he added, warning that looting had broken out.
Image copyrightAPImage captionFunerals for some of the victims took place on Monday in Portoviejo
Media captionThe death toll is still expected to rise
In Portoviejo, a city of 300,000 people 15km (10 miles) from the coast, rescuers rushed to search the debris of flattened buildings for survivors as residents reported the stench of decaying bodies beneath the rubble.
Some looting was also reported in Portoviejo. "I have to take some advantage from this horrible tragedy," one man, Jorge Esquivel, told Reuters. "I need money to buy food. There's no water, no light, and my house was destroyed."
Hundreds of people in Portoviejo and Pedernales are expected to have to sleep outdoors on Monday night.
In Portoviejo, four members of the same family were killed when a building collapsed on their car, Associated Press reported. The Quinde family had travelled to the city to drop off 17-year-old daughter Sayira, who was due to start university next week.
Elsewhere in Portoviejo, the vibrations reduced part of the city's prison to rubble, allowing 100 inmates to escape. Some were recaptured but others remained on the run, Justice Minister Ledy Zuniga said on Twitter.
Image copyrightPAImage captionNun Clare Theresa Crockett from Northern Ireland was killed when the quake destroyed her school in the Ecuadorean town of Playa Prieta
Two Canadians, named as Jennifer Mawn, 38, and her son, Arthur, 12, died the earthquake, media in Canada report
One US citizen is among the victims, the State Department says
More than 13,500 emergency workers are deployed, with some 400 coming from nearby South American countries
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at a fairly shallow depth of 19.2km (11.9 miles), about 27km from Muisne in a sparsely populated area.
The quake was also felt in neighbouring Colombia.
Scientists say there is no connection between the quake in Ecuador and a severe tremor in southern Japan, which also occurred on Saturday.
BBC Football Daily rounds up Tottenham Hotspur's 4-0 away win over Stoke City as Harry Kane and Dele Alli both score twice to keep Spurs in the Premier League title chase.
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