Parts of Florida are inching back towards normality with workers restoring power, clearing roads and replenishing fuel supplies, even as teams scour the southernmost islands and authorities warn of mass devastation.

Experts say the city of Houston has sunk by two centimetres due to the amount of rain that fell during Hurricane Harvey.

Heavy rain and 185 mph winds lashed the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico's north-east coast on Wednesday as Hurricane Irma roared through Caribbean islands on its way to a possible hit on South Florida.

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.

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.

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.

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

Hurricane Harvey has deluged America's fourth-largest city with devastating floods, with rising water forcing thousands on to rooftops and overwhelming rescuers receiving constant calls for help.

The remnants of Hurricane Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into Houston on Sunday as rising water led thousands of people to seek higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers.

Rising floodwaters from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey sent thousands of people scrambling on to rooftops or higher ground in Houston, overwhelming rescuers who fielded countless desperate calls for help.

Hurricane Harvey rolled over the Texas Gulf Coast on Saturday, leaving one person dead and smashing homes and businesses.

Hurricane Harvey hit his coastal community "right on the nose" and left "widespread devastation", a Texas mayor said.

Singer Cher will donate water to the residents of a city that is struggling with a drinking water crisis linked to lead contamination.

Former US president George W Bush returned to New Orleans to praise the region’s recovery on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The threat of space rocks smashing into Earth is bigger than previously thought, say scientists studying the terrifying meteor that exploded without warning over a Russian city last winter.

The White House has signalled that it would be open to a short-term hike in the US debt limit as the United States moved a step closer to its first-ever default while a separate impasse, a partial government shutdown, entered its second week.

US authorities have called on thousands more people in the flood-ravaged city of Boulder, Colorado, to evacuate as a nearby creek began rising to dangerous levels.

Barack Obama visited tornado-devastated Oklahoma, consoling people staggered by the loss of life and property and promising that the US government would be behind them “every step of the way”.

Areas on the US east coast are racing to remove untold tons of debris from waters hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy before the summer swimming and boating seasons begin.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appealed to congressional leaders for quick action on providing tens of billions of dollars in new federal aid to help his city and state and others recover from Superstorm Sandy but was told it might be some time before it is forthcoming – and it likely will not be all at once.

New York has imposed a petrol rationing plan that allows motorists to fill up every other day as the city continued to feel the effects of Superstorm Sandy.

The New York-New Jersey region woke up to a layer of wet snow and more power cuts after a new storm pushed back efforts to recover from a superstorm had left millions powerless and dozens dead last week.

Coastal residents of New York and New Jersey faced fresh warnings to evacuate their homes today as a new storm took aim, a week after Superstorm Sandy left dozens dead and millions without power.

A new storm is expected to hit the New York-New Jersey region still cleaning up after the battering from superstorm Sandy.

The lights are back on in lower Manhattan to the relief of residents who had been plunged into darkness for nearly five days by superstorm Sandy.

More New Yorkers awoke today to power being restored for the first time since Superstorm Sandy pummelled the region, but patience was wearing thin among those in the region who have been without power for most of the week.

Motorists in 12 northern New Jersey counties will be allowed to buy fuel just every second day under an order by Governor Chris Christie.

The New York City Marathon was last night cancelled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg after mounting criticism that this was not the time for a race while the region is still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

WHEN Katarina smashed up New Orleans, we looked on in horror the way you would a foreign disaster movie — appalling, but not really something you could relate to.

President Barack Obama returned to full-force campaigning today, ending a three-day pause to manage the federal response to the historic storm that battered the East Coast.

President Barack Obama, locked in a tight re-election bid, is skipping campaign events in battleground states to visit victims of superstorm Sandy in New Jersey, a state he’s confident of winning.

The superstorm ravaging the US East Coast laid waste to the campaign strategies of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney with just a week remaining in their intensely close race for the White House.

Superstorm Sandy disrupted the US presidential race as President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney both cancelled campaign events.

YOU’RE familiar with the butterfly effect, of course.

Hurricane Sandy headed north from the Caribbean – where it left nearly 60 dead - to threaten the eastern US today with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow as millions were warned to get out of its path.

Hurricane Isaac has swept into New Orleans exactly seven years after the devastating Katrina, stranding people in cars and homes as it pushed flood waters over defences in one rural area.

More than 500,000 people have lost power as Hurricane Isaac moves through south-east Louisiana, bringing torrential rain and flooding.

The centre of Tropical Storm Isaac’s projected path is heading directly for New Orleans and could make landfall as early as tonight, nearly seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

People whose homes and businesses were affected by last month's flash floods in Cork have been told they will be able to apply to a humanitarian fund for help.

At least three people have died and many people are wounded after a suicide car bomber drove into a north Nigeria church’s compound and detonated explosives as worshippers left an early morning service.