Expats caught up in Hurricane Harvey have said it is the worst storm they ever seen – but are steeling themselves for more.
The storm has dumped yearly totals of rain over Aberdeen’s twin city Houston.
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 – and last night 80,000 people were told to evacuate amid fears the rivers Brazos and San Bernard were going to burst its banks.
The Brazos river is expected to breach at 59ft – up from a typical depth of 10 to 15ft, according to local sources.
Earlier, 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 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: “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.”
Andy Grieve was left stranded after the storm hit, with the water just a foot from his front door.
Mr Grieve, who runs engineering consultancy firm Hampco – which has a base in Aberdeen – in the suburb of Katy has not been evacuated but said many people around him had fled to safety.
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 feet of water at the entrance gate of our estate.”
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.
Stephanie Smart, originally from Aberdeen, was on a work trip when the 130mph winds swept in landward from the Atlantic, last night revealed some of her colleagues have lost their homes.
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.”
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 26-year-old is the communications manager for subsea oil services company Seanamic Group Ltd, and was due to fly back to Scotland today.
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.”