People from across the north-east are among those caught up in the flooding sweeping the southern United States.
Hurricane Harvey has dumped yearly totals of rain over Aberdeen’s twin city Houston since making landfall on Friday night.
The extreme weather caused many parts of the oil-rich city and wider state see freeways disappear under water and cars and homes suffer millions of dollars of damage.
At least five people are feared dead with thousands more forced out of their homes and with their livelihoods in tatters.
Some of those affected could be seen perched on the roofs of houses, surrounded by water and waiting for rescue by helicopter or boat.
Former Banff Academy pupil Lorna Ramsay, who moved to downturn Houston in 2003, who one of those caught up in the chaos.
The realtor said: “This has never happened before to this level. It’s really bad.
“People are sitting on the top of their roofs waiting to be rescued.
“People are picking up others in private boats as well as the professional rescuers. Every day it gets worse.
“There are communities that are now like lakes and rivers.”
She added: “The Bayou is very close to us and has split its banks.
“They are trying to slowly release the water from the reservoirs and the water is going to come into downtown. So it’s only going to get worse. And it’s still raining.
“Nobody is at work, some areas are needing to evacuate. It’s horrific.
“Our problem is that it’s not over. The storm has gone back out into the Gulf and it’s going to come back in again.
“They are saying it’s going to rain until the end of the week so we are nowhere near out of this.”
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has confirmed that the British Consulate General in downtown Houston is currently closed due to the “severe weather conditions”.
Business, schools and colleges are all shut as is many of the region’s oil and gas related infrastructure, as the industry grinds to a halt.
One former Aberdeen native who now lives and works in the Houston suburb of Katy was left stranded in his home after Hurricane Harvey tore through the southern state.
Andy Grieve described the fallout of the natural disaster as a “mess”.
He said some people around the state were being told to leave behind their beloved belongings in order to escape rising water levels.
And Mr Grieve himself, who runs engineering consultancy Hampco – which also has a base in Aberdeen – woke up yesterday with the water just a foot from his front door.
He said: “Things are a mess here and many folk are subject now to mandatory evacuation but simply can’t get anywhere because of flooded roads and it is very hard to find fuel.
“We are not in mandatory evacuation and have been dry, but the water is already in our garden and we just have another 12 inches before it comes into the house.
“However, we can’t go anywhere as there is five ft of water at the entrance gate of our estate.”
Another north-east woman caught up in the flooding revealed how some of her colleagues had their homes devastated as Hurricane Harvey overran the southern US state.
Stephanie Smart, originally from Aberdeen, was on a work trip when the 130mph winds swept in landward from the Atlantic, dragging in torrential downpours.
The inches and inches of rain that fell, clogged the drainage systems around Texas, bringing widespread flooding which saw cars disappear under torrents of water.
Just a week ago Ms Smart visited her colleague’s house in Texas – which was later hit with six foot of floodwater.
She said: “It’s absolutely horrific.
“I was at a girl I work with sister’s house last weekend. It’s now six feet in water. She had to rescued. That’s quite scary when it’s somewhere you’ve been and someone that you know.”
Ms Smart has been confined to a hotel in Sugar Land, a city just southwest of Houston, for the last four days waiting for the rain to stop.
The Glasgow based 26-year-old is the communications manager for subsea oil services company Seanamic Group Ltd, which has offices in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Houston.
She was due to fly back today after a two week trip to see clients.
But, even if the airport reopens, she faces a struggle to get to the departure lounge due to the sheer amount of flooded underpasses and the lack of transport.
She said: “Even if the airport is open the roads the underpasses are totally flooded.
“So if the airport was open, it would probably be a bigger challenge getting there due to the rainfall.”
“I went to a supermarket with a friend on Thursday night and it was chaos. There was no water, very little food and everything was running out.
“It started raining pretty heavily on Friday lunchtime and by Friday night that was when the thunderstorms started.
“It’s been pretty constant rain since then and we’ve had a few tornado warnings.”
