The United States Coast Guard has said that on Wednesday (30 August) it rescued more than 940 people from the devastating flooding around of Texas.

Houston, one of the southern state's largest cities, has been the epicentre of rescue efforts as people tried to escape rising waters caused by Hurricane Harvey as it travelled from Texas to Louisiana.

More from IBTimes UK

"We are assessing the needs of the community around the clock and strategically placing our punt teams in the best place to assist," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Stephanie Tindall, a marine science technician at Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston.

"We have been working closely with partnered agencies to ensure an effective and efficient response effort."

The Coast Guard said that resources from across the country had been deployed to "create a sustainable response force", they added that they currently have 33 helicopters, nine flood punt teams and 12 shallow-draft vessels operating in the area.

Along with the 4,500 people that the Coast Guard said they had so far saved, they added that they had also managed to rescue 113 pets.

As well as the terrifying scenes coming out of Houston, a number of cities along the Texas-Lousiana border were left underwater by the unstoppable storm. The oil-rich city's flooding even left the metropolis Dallas struggling to keep up with petrol demand.

A chemical plant in Houston was also badly damaged in the natural disaster leading to explosions with officials at the Arkema plant saying they said no way of stopping further explosions.

A police officer was believed injured in one explosion at the facility while a flight ban was issued for the area nearby.

"We have an unprecedented 6ft of water at the plant. We have lost primary power and two sources of emergency backup power," Arkema CEO Rich Rowe said.

"As a result, we have lost critical refrigeration of the materials on site that could now explode and cause a subsequent intense fire. The high water and lack of power leave us with no way to prevent it."