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.

Report finds agency handling disasters lacks co-ordination

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.

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”.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

President Obama declared an emergency in one state today as Hurricane Earl headed towards the US east coast with winds at around 145 mph.

A powerful Hurricane Earl threatened to lash much of America’s East Coast, forcing Labour Day holidaymakers to rethink spending the traditional last week of summer at the beach.

The massive effort to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill must be scaled back now, BP's new chief executive officer said today.

Scores of people were dead and missing today after a powerful earthquake in the South Pacific hurled a massive tsunami at the shores of Samoa and American Samoa.

Tropical Storm Hanna sped toward the Carolinas today, promising to deliver gusty winds and heavy rain during a dash up America’s Eastern Seaboard that could wash out the weekend for millions of people.

Hurricane Gustav crashed into a mainly-deserted US Gulf coast and delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans as it weakened and headed inland today.

Hurricane Gustav weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm as it headed towards New Orleans today, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Officials in the US state of Texas are today preparing for Hurricane Dean.

In the New Orleans neighbourhood President Bush visited right after Hurricane Katrina, the US government gave $84.5m (€65.3m) to more than 10,000 households.

Michael Brown, who lost his job as director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because of Hurricane Katrina, today said his biggest regret a year later was that he was not candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.

BRONWYNNE Bassier was desperate. Roaming the streets of her Biloxi, Mississippi, neighbourhood four days after Katrina, scavenging for food and clothes for her two-year-old son, Ms Bassier stumbled upon the one man who presumably could help: President George W Bush.

The US government will soon be sending warnings of national emergencies on mobile phones, websites and hand-held computers.

Bogus claimants spent up to $1.4bn meant for hurricane victims on tropical holidays, champagne, a divorce lawyer and even a sex change, investigators in the United States have revealed.

A senior US official at the centre of the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina tonight warned of the dangers of leaving a media void.

HURRICANE Katrina turned the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into a “symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy” so far beyond repair it should be scrapped, senators said yesterday.

HURRICANE Katrina turned the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into a “symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy” so far beyond repair it should be scrapped, senators said yesterday.

The US government’s emergency agency is struggling to fill hundreds of vacant jobs before the June 1 start of the annual hurricane season, the agency’s chief said today.

Unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognising the scope of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction led to the slow emergency response from the White House down to local officials, a damning US government investigation says.

America’s former disaster chief Michael Brown, who became the personification of the government’s listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said he told top officials of massive flooding in New Orleans on the day the storm howled ashore.

Former US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) director Michael Brown has placed blame on everyone from New Orleans’ mayor to Louisiana’s governor for the chaos following Hurricane Katrina. Now, he’s including himself.

FORMER FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticised for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.

Newly-released emails show America’s former disaster agency director discussing his wardrobe during the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina.

In the Keys island chain, where Wilma’s storm surge caused extensive flooding, plans were announced to welcome tourists beginning today, as power was restored to nearly half the South Florida homes and businesses that lost it during Hurricane Wilma.

With many Floridians still struggling to find food, water, ice and fuel after Hurricane Wilma, Governor Jeb Bush took responsibility for frustrating relief delays in a state all too familiar with powerful storms.

Hurricane Wilma crashed ashore early today as a strong Category 3 storm, battering south-west Florida with 125 mph winds and pounding waves as it began a dash across the state.

A series of leaked emails has revealed infighting and chaos at the heart of the US government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

A combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for his agency’s dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance before Congress.

MAJOR contracts for the Hurricane Katrina clean-up have been awarded without bidding or with limited competition, prompting controversy in the United States.

Major contracts for the Hurricane Katrina clean-up have been awarded without bidding or with limited competition, prompting controversy in the United States.

Concerned about Hurricane Rita’s damage to coastal oil refineries, US President George Bush turned his attention to the nation’s energy industry as early economic indicators offered reason for optimism and a speedy recovery.

FEDERAL authorities began counting down to Hurricane Rita's arrival with last-minute promises to deliver fuel to hundreds of thousands of evacuees fleeing the shifting storm that covered half of the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Rita is expected to destroy almost 5,700 homes and affect more than five million Texans when it slams into the US coast overnight, officials said.

The outer bands of rain from Hurricane Rita began falling in New Orleans today, and forecasts of between 8 and 13 centimetres of rainfall in the coming days raised fears the patched levee system could fail and flood the city all over again.