Thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot up once again from a flooded Houston-area chemical plant where highly unstable compounds blew up after losing refrigeration.

HURRICANE Harvey was a sobering experience for some Americans but they can take some comfort in the fact that they are not as vulnerable to weather chaos as citizens of far poorer countries.

There is a warning petrol and diesel prices are due to go up at the pumps.

The US Navy have rescued 14 people at an elementary school in Texas after floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey threatened to immerse their shelter.

Rescuers are continuing to search waterlogged neighbourhoods in Houston, Texas, as officials turn their attention to finding temporary housing for those in shelters in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Rescuers have begun a block-by-block search of tens of thousands of Houston homes looking for anyone - alive or dead - who might have been left behind in Harvey's floodwaters.

The White House says US President Donald Trump is pledging $1m in personal funds to Hurricane Harvey storm relief efforts.

Latest: Fires and two explosions have rocked a flooded chemical plant in Texas, sending up a plume that federal authorities described as "incredibly dangerous" and adding a potential new hazard to the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

President Donald Trump has set aside his focus on talking up Storm Harvey recovery efforts to speak directly to the suffering of victims, saying: "All of America is grieving with you."

A toddler was found clinging to her drowned mother's body in a flooded canal during Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas.

The flood waters from Tropical Storm Harvey are beginning to drop across much of the Houston area, emergency officials said.

A seriously ill Irish teenager stranded in her Texan apartment in the fallout from Hurricane Harvey has been evacuated and taken to Texas Children’s Hospital, Shauntelle Tynan, from Greystones, Co Carlow, is in Houston for treatment of a rare autoimmune disease and was in urgent need of a blood transfusion.

Latest: President Donald Trump has offered reassurances to Texans who felt the wrath of Storm Harvey, promising residents during a visit to the state: "We are going to get you back and operating immediately."

Officials fear the death toll from flooding in Texas sparked by Hurricane Harvey could soar once the water recedes from one of America's most sprawling metropolitan centres.

An Irish teenager caught up in Hurricane Harvey while undergoing specialist cancer treatment is back in hospital after being stranded in the floods.

President Donald Trump is expected to visit two Texas cities for updates on the devastating flooding that has paralysed the region in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

Latest:>US President Donald Trump is encouraging the public to prepare for Hurricane Harvey before it makes landfall in Texas.