An aerial photograph reveals the huge swathes of flooded land in Houston, Texas on Sunday. Hurricane Harvey blustered through the town on Friday and Saturday, bringing with it unprecedented downpour and triggering life-threatening floods.
The destructive path of the hurricane began to take shape on Sunday, with a striking collection of aerial photographs laying bare its damage for the first time.
Highways lay submerged in water where abandoned cars bobbed alongside rescue boats taking residents to safety, as Galveston County estimates up to 1,200 people had to be rescued from the 'life-threatening' waters.
At least five people are dead and dozens are injured after 130mph winds and unprecedented floods swept through the southeast pocket of the state on Friday and Saturday.
There is even more rain on the way - a record-setting 50 inches - and emergency response teams have been stretched to their limit as the state was hit with 11 trillion gallons of water, according to reports.
On Sunday, as thousands fled their homes in kayaks and swam through the watery streets, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, revealed it would take the area years to recover from the storm which is the worst this decade.
Harvey has been downgraded from a Category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm but its threat is still imminent. Authorities are now fearing its second deadly phase - the floods.
Rockport was one of the worst hit coastal towns by the Category 4 storm. Hurricane Harvey blustered through the town on Friday and Saturday, bringing with it unprecedented downpour and triggering life-threatening floods
The National Weather Service said: 'The breadth and intensity of this rainfall are beyond anything experienced before. Catastrophic flooding is now underway and expected to continue for days.'
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that as of 5pm on Sunday, Houston police and fire departments had received nearly 6,000 calls for rescues and had rescued more than 1,000 people.
Turner said that so far only one fatality has been confirmed in his city - a woman who died Saturday evening after getting out of her car when it drove into a flooded street.
Turner said 22 aircrafts were working to help identify people stranded on roofs. Sixteen of those aircrafts are from U.S. Coast Guard.
In addition, 35 boats and 93 dump trucks were being used by the city for high water rescues.
The mayor also defended his decision not to order an evacuation.
'The decision that we made was a smart one. It was in the best interest of Houstonians. It was the right decision in terms of their safety... absolutely no regrets. We did what was the right thing to do,' Turner said.
A bird's eye view of Aransas Pass in Texas, one of the worst affected areas. At least five people have died in Aransas County but officials say it is too early to confirm all of the suspected deaths
Abbott said he'd called Tuner's cell phone 'several times' to 'let him know that, whatever he needs, the state of Texas will provide.' Abbott said he'd yet to hear back.
The governor and mayor clashed before Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday, with Abbott suggesting people in Houston might want to evacuate but Turner saying fleeing unnecessarily would clog highways for those leaving other communities facing bigger threats.
However, despite the massive 'unprecedented' flooding, Turner argued that he stands by his decision not to evacuate, saying that it would have led to a worse outcome.
Turner added in a press conference: 'If you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare. Especially when it's not planned,'
'If you do it or attempt to do it and it's not coordinated, not done right, you are literally putting people in harm's way, and you're creating a far worse situation,' Turner said.
An eighteen wheel tractor trailer is stranded on Interstate Highway 45 which is submerged from the effects of Harvey
Tweeting from Camp David where he is spending the weekend with his family, President Trump said the 'good news' was there was 'talent on the ground' and congratulated 'all levels of government' for its strong response to the disaster.
The president plans to visit Texas on Tuesday, the White House revealed on Sunday.
'The President will travel to Texas on Tuesday. We are coordinating logistics with state and local officials, and once details are finalized, we will let you know.
'We continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers,' a statement read.
Trump tweeted: 'Great coordination between agencies at all levels of government. Continuing rains and flash floods are being dealt with. Thousands rescued.'
Trump continued: 'Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen. Good news is that we have great talent on the ground.
'I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety.'
In the same flurry, he announced he would soon be returning to Missouri for a visit, taking the opportunity to remind followers that he won the state in the 2016 election.
'I will also be going to a wonderful state, Missouri, that I won by a lot in '16. Dem C.M. is opposed to big tax cuts. Republican will win S!' he wrote.
Around an hour later, he returned to his account to marvel at the size of the storm.
'Wow - Now experts are calling Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!'
He then complained about Mexico being 'one of the highest crime Nations in the world', pleaded again for 'The Wall' and then threatened to scrap the US's trade deal with the country and Canada.
'We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult,may have to terminate?' he said.
Survivors cower from the rain under their jackets and life jackets after being rescued on a boat on Sunday in Houston
'President Trump continued to stress his expectation that all departments and agencies stay fully committed to supporting the Governors of Texas and Louisiana and his number one priority of saving lives,' a White House statement said.
'He reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing life-sustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place, and economic recovery.
'Last, he urged survivors impacted by the storm to continue to heed the instructions of their State and local officials.
A preacher wades in to the water in Houston to check for trapped motorists inside submerged cars
Col. Lars Zetterstrom said this was being done very slowly to prevent uncontrollable flooding of downtown Houston and the Houston Ship Channel.
Downtown Houston is 17 miles downstream from the dams, which were built during the 1940s in response to a 1935 flood that inundated much of downtown area.
Zetterstrom says the water contained by the dams is 'unparalleled in the dams' history.' The waters are rising about 4 inches per hour.
Zetterstrom says the dams will impound water for one to three months as water is gradually released. He adds that some neighborhoods on the fringes of the reservoir are likely to see some floods.
Meanwhile, Galveston County officials said they have made up to 1,200 rescues due to the storm.
A man walks down the center of Interstate 225 after abandoning his car as flood waters rose on the street on Sunday
Henry said about 90 percent of the county's rescue calls have come from Dickinson. An appeal had been made through social media for assistance by private boat owners and their vessels, and 25 to 35 owners responded.
Henry is appealing for volunteers to help staff rescue shelters and see to the needs of the 2,000 to 10,000 people that have sheltered in them.
Five people have been reported dead, with three people from Aransas County and another two are thought to have died in Houston as 130mph winds and thrashing rain lashed the region.
The scene at Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston on Sunday morning where flood water is now covering entire portions of the city
In Texas, local politicians, police and weather experts in painted a dire picture of the devastation Harvey has brought.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are warning that it will take years to recover from the hurricane.
'FEMA is going to be there for years, sir. This disaster recovery - this disaster is going to be a landmark event,' administrator Brock Long said, adding: 'This disaster's going to be a landmark event.'
CBS Science Contributor Michio Kaku said on Sunday: 'If it lingers over the land it could cause massive flooding.
'Then, watch out, if it goes back into the Gulf it could get re-energized and create a second, even a third landfall.
So the agony has just begun with this hurricane of the decade.'
911 operators in Houston were quickly overwhelmed by the volume of calls for help and had to start choosing between pleas from stranded residents.
A family evacuates their home in a canoe, bringing their beloved dogs with them in Meyerland near Houston
'I have 2 children with me and the water is swallowing us up. Please sent help. 911 is not responding!!!' wrote Maritza Willis. She was rescued soon afterwards.
Charles Bujan, the mayor of Port Aransas, said his town had been entirely wiped out by the hurricane.
'To be honest with you, I'm sick to my stomach,' he told The San Antonio Express on Saturday, describing painstakingly how one trailer park in the town had been entirely washed away.
'It's a 100 percent loss,' he said of the Port Aransas' Pioneer Trailer Park.
Aerial images show a trailer park that has been devastated by Hurricane Harvey on Sunday in Aransas, Texas
'I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it,' he said.
Cell phone service was entirely scrambled in Rockport, a coastal town thought to have been among the worst hit.
Residents were left in no doubt of the danger they faced by staying - the town's mayor ominously told them to mark their arms with Sharpie pens in order for search and rescue teams to be able to later identify their corpses.
One of those killed in Houston was found dead in their car, NBC reported on Sunday. They are thought to have drowned.
Another person died in a house fire in Aransas County as they waited for emergency services to get to them. The rescuers could not get there quickly enough because of the Category 4 Hurricane, it was claimed.
According to ABC, one woman's body was seen floating in flood water in Houston on Saturday.
Some defiant residents who stayed behind in Corpus Christi, another coastal town, have not been heard from since the Category 4 hurricane made landfall on Saturday.
A boat sits on a dock after Hurricane Harvey passed through Port Aransas, Texas on Sunday
'There is life-threatening, catastrophic flooding happening now in Southeast Harris County,' Jeff Lindner of the Harris County Flood Control District told The Weather Channel on Sunday.
Among the rescued were 50 children who were saved from two apartment complexes in the city.
Louisiana is bracing for rain, with the storm due to travel towards it as it tails off in Texas. No weather warnings are currently in effect for Louisiana.
In some homes, more than six feet of water has poured over sandbags and makeshift barriers. Residents fled to their attics to try to escape the rising flood water, a tactic weather and safety experts strongly urged against on Sunday.
'Calls to HCFCD of people climbing into their attics...Do NOT go into attics. Get on your roof if necessary. If calling 911, stay on the line if unanswered,' Lindner tweeted in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The flooding in Houston is expected to go down as the worst in the region's history, surpassing that of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
Two kayakers beat the current as they make their way along South Braeswood in Houston, Texas, on Sunday
Harris County Sheriff's Office told people to remain inside their homes even if they were filling up with water, tweeting: 'Non-life-threatening water inside home is safer than going outside. Difficult & scary, but we'll get to you. Pls shelter in place. Be safe.'
Harvey slammed into Texas, the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry, late Friday.
It ripped off roofs, snapped trees, and triggered tornadoes and flash floods, and cut power to nearly a quarter of a million people.
It also curtailed a large portion of America's oil and fuel production, prompting price hikes at the pumps.
Harvey has since weakened to a tropical storm, but is expected to lash Texas for days as it lumbers inland, bringing as much as 50 inches of rain to some areas, and affecting heavily populated.
The National Hurricane Center described the rain forecast for the state as potentially 'catastrophic.'
'Rainfall measured in feet rather than inches can certainly create a catastrophic flood,' spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.
One person died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles north of the city of Corpus Christi, as Harvey roared ashore overnight.
Mayor Charles Wax said in a news conference on Saturday, marking the first confirmed fatality from the storm.
Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries like broken bones, another official said.
The town took a direct hit from the storm and had streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday afternoon.
At a recreational vehicle sales lot, a dozen vehicles were flipped over and one had been blown into the middle of the street.
Wilford Martinez (bottom) grabs a median as he is rescued from his flooded car in Houston on Sunday. More than 1,000 rescues were made over Saturday and Sunday
'It was terrible,' resident Joel Valdez, 57, told Reuters.
The storm ripped part of the roof from his trailer home at around 4am, he said as he sat in a Jeep with windows smashed by the storm.
'I could feel the whole house move.'
Before the storm hit, Rockport's mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury.
A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage, according to emergency officials and local media. Some were being used as shelters.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday said he was activating 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup, while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations.
More pictures can be seen here.
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