Death toll from Hurricane Harvey rises to 8 in Texas

Six of the fatalities occurred in Harris County, which includes the city of Houston. One person died in Rockport, near where Harvey made landfall on Friday night, and another person died in Galveston.

Texas Gov. George Abbott warned in a press conference in Corpus Christi, 355 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of Houston, that the magnitude of the catastrophe means that people must accept a "reality" - that the region is just beginning the process of responding to the storm.

Federal Emergency Management Agency director Brock Long told reporters that FEMA will be in the area for "weeks" helping with the disaster recovery work.

President Donald Trump will travel to Corpus Christi on Tuesday with his wife Melania to supervise emergency aid work in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

The worst situation is playing itself out in the Houston metro area, where 2.3 million people live and more than a meter (3.3 feet) of floodwater had collected.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a press conference that there are about 5,500 people being housed in about 20 shelters established around the city, a figure that he said will rise "exponentially" in the coming hours.

Authorities estimate that they will have to house more than 30,000 people in shelters due to the record flooding.

Harvey made landfall on Friday evening in Rockport, Texas, located some 360 kilometers (223 miles) southwest of Houston, as a Category 4 hurricane, one step removed from the maximum level on the 5-point Saffir-Simpson scale.

In recent days, the storm's intensity has diminished and it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, although it has brought "catastrophic flooding" to Houston and other locations, where rescue teams are using dozens of helicopters and boats to assist people who have been trapped by the floodwaters.