Erica Dawes pounded on her steering wheel to feel better. There was nothing she could do to get traffic moving south on Loop 610 toward The Galleria this morning.

She got to her desk 45 minutes late — and she wasn't the last person to arrive at the office.

"Every time someone walked in, we all just knew they got caught in it, too," Dawes said Tuesday afternoon, already dreading her return trip in the evening.

Tropical Storm Harvey dumped water on the Houston area for three days, but the rains' effect on area roadways is expected to last far longer. Residents will endure traffic congestion and general roadway confusion as closed roads and displaced commuters remake the city's freeway network, potentially for weeks to come.

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A portion of the Sam Houston Tollway from Westheimer to Interstate 10 remains a lake. Officials with the Harris County Toll Road Authority do not expect the water to recede for seven days. Only then will they know what it will take to reopen one of the region's key thoroughfares.

"We are not sure what we are going to find in the bottom of that," said John Tyler, deputy director of engineering for the toll road authority.

County, toll and city officials are all working on options for managing traffic around the tollway closing, which has spread traffic throughout western parts of Houston.

On Tuesday that closing collided with the return to work for many amid ongoing recovery efforts, creating a messy commute.

"There is a certain proportion of the population that is trying to get back to normal and some living with family and friends and others trying to get back into their homes," said Tony Voigt, a Houston-based researcher with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. "It just sets up different travel patterns than our network is intended to handle."

Those headed back to jobs Tuesday morning learned the hard way. In some neighborhoods, including some still waiting for the waters to recede, just getting to the freeway was an hour-long hassle. Inoperable traffic lights slowed major streets to one-at-a-time shuffle along routes that usually move traffic toward the freeway in large numbers.

"I spent two hours in my car, for a trip that usually takes 45 minutes," said Shaelyn Reese, 31, who commutes downtown from near Clay Road and Gessner.

Meanwhile, people made their own way with various detours that sent swaths of traffic away from closed roads and into a clogged mess somewhere else. Streets into downtown Houston were especially overloaded, along with many south of Interstate 10 in the Energy Corridor.

Once they reached the main lanes, spots along I-10, Interstate 45, Interstate 69 and Loop 610 were extremely jammed. Some took to social media to report stopped traffic as far north as The Woodlands, which was the only freeway where the HOT lanes remained closed.

Regionally, traffic was just a mess.

"I don't think we can peg it on one thing, but there are three or four things," Voigt said.

Traffic that typically would use the Sam Houston Tollway is re-routing to other freeways, namely the Westpark Tollway, Loop 610 through the Uptown area and U.S. 290. That places more cars and trucks on an already notoriously congested segment.

Water-topped roads around Addicks and Barker also are putting more traffic on I-10, as the Texas Department of Transportation works to maintain the road, clear debris and monitor water from the reservoirs, which at one point threatened to close the freeway.

"Even when the road is open, it isn't up to full strength," Voigt said.

Other major roadways, including Texas 6, Barker Cypress Road, North Eldridge Parkway and Clay Road are closed north of I-10. Segments of Westheimer Parkway, South Barker Cypress Road and others near the Fort Bend County line remain closed on the south side of I-10.

Allen Parkway at Montrose, Memorial Parkway at Houston Avenue and Shepherd and Elysian at Kelley near Loop 610 and I-45 all remained flooded, leading to some downtown-bound delays.

Conditions of those roads and others still closed remained unknown Tuesday. Their conditions, officials said, will have huge implications on what it takes to return traffic to them. If it simply is a matter of pumping out water and cleaning drains of debris, that could be a matter of hours.

The concern is that some roads face far more repairs. On Aug. 26, the last time engineers got a good look at some of the Sam Houston Tollway south of I-10, they knew some soil behind the tollway's retaining wall had settled, leaving a void.

Thus far, the wall and the frontage road have not failed, Tyler said.

"If everything is relatively simple, there are no pipes or something we don't know is there ... we can just fill in the hole," he said.

If not, the tollway could face significant construction in the depressed area.

Another factor worsening traffic is that people are moving around the area in new ways. Many residents displaced from the floods are returning to work, but are coming from the homes or friends and family members. Others are not going to work, but traveling to and from unfamiliar places as goods pour into the area so homes can be rebuilt and store shelves depleted by days of rain and stockpiling are re-stocked.

The changes in those trips and patterns have traffic experts just as puzzled as drivers, at least until some consistency emerges.

"The reliability of travel times in the Houston area is not going to be what it is normally, and it won't be for a while," Voigt said. "I don't know if a while is one month or two months or three months."

Some easing will occur as roads reopen and people settle into routines. After Hurricane Ike lashed the area in 2008, Voigt said it took about six to eight weeks for normalcy to return. Since the area took on far less wind damage this time, some systems likely will be repaired more quickly.

Residents who see anything in need of repair should report it, Houston Public Works spokeswoman Alanna Reed said.

"Call 311, send it online, do what you need to," she said. "We just need to know the ones that are marked and which ones we need to get to."

Houston and Harris County said they are rapidly repairing traffic signals. Crews were out Sunday and Monday making as many intersections operational as possible. Tuesday morning, crews monitored certain locations and were making changes to light timing where possible to help move traffic better.

For Wednesday, there are some signs of improvement. The Metropolitan Transit Authority said the HOT lane along I-45 north of downtown will be open for morning and evening commutes. HCTRA meanwhile continued to waive toll charges on all of its tollways.

Despite all the work over the weekend, officials still anticipate problems in the days ahead.

"Drivers should anticipate significant traffic delays in areas where major roadways remain closed due to flooding," Harris County Infrastructure Department officials said in a release. "Please be patient and plan to adjust your rush hour travel schedule accordingly."

Officials said individual businesses and workers also can make decisions about how best to address traffic, such as allowing employees to work from home when practical or shift hours to stretch out the workday from peak commuting periods.

Voigt said people should pay attention to online traffic information, such as Houston TranStar or Waze, which can give drivers up-to-date information on conditions.

Also, he said, people should have patience.

"Take deep breaths and try to play good neighbor for a while as we all try to deal with this," he said. "We're all in the same boat."