Mass evacuations ordered as tropical storm Harvey devastates Houston

Houston is being inundated with "unprecedented" devastating flooding after ferocious Hurricane Harvey set in over southeast Texas this weekend, dumping torrential rain on the city, with no end in sight.

Harvey came ashore late on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years and has killed at least three people. It has since sat in the same general area around Texas’ Gulf of Mexico Coast where it is forecast to remain for several more days, drenching parts of the region with a year’s worth of rainfall in the span of a week, Reuters report.

Schools, airports and office buildings in Houston were ordered shut on Monday as scores of roads were turned into rivers by floods and chest-high water filled numerous neighbourhoods in the low-lying city.

More than 50,000 people were ordered to leave parts of Fort Bend County.