Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest cyclone to hit the US in more than a decade, has slammed into Texas, lashing a wide swathe of the Gulf Coast with strong winds and torrential rain.

Tar balls found on a Texas beach were confirmed as the first evidence that gushing crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon well had reached all the Gulf states.

A palaeontologist whose Texas beachfront home was destroyed during Hurricane Ike has found a football-size tooth in the debris.

Thousands of victims of Hurricane Ike huddled in shelters for what could be weeks and others queued wearily for food, water, ice and petrol as the misery of the disaster along the Texas coast became increasingly clear.