Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared a state of emergency in Houston, where 70,000 people were left without power. Rivers burst their banks in the fourth-largest US city and 1,200 people were rescued from rising floodwaters. At least 1,000 homes have flooded, with the number likely to rise. City officials have turned a large shopping centre into an evacuation centre.

One Houston flood official said waters recorded in one area were 40ft (12 metres) higher than the previous record. 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.