WATCH: Neighbours rescue elderly couple from flooded home in Houston

An elderly couple were rescued from their flooded home by some neighbours in Houston, Texas on Sunday (August 27.)

According to a Facebook post by Wendy M. Waterman, a neighbour who took video of the rescue, the couple were in their 90s.

The woman was carried on a chair, while another neighbour helped support the elderly man as he slowly waded through the waist-deep water.

Hurricane Harvey's whipsaw of wind and rain across Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast hurt the shares of US property and casualty insurers on Monday as Wall Street analysts estimated insured losses as high as US$20 billion (S$27 billion).

That would make it one of the costliest storms in history for US insurers, but could ultimately help insurers and reinsurers to raise rates, some analysts said, after a period of low premiums.

"Our best guess at this point is Harvey could result in US$10 billion to US$20 billion of industry insured losses, making it one of the top 10 most costly hurricanes to hit the United States," JPMorgan analyst Sarah DeWitt said in a research note on Monday.

Swathes of Houston were underwater on Monday, the effect of Harvey sweeping ashore on Friday as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in 50 years. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, but more rain is expected to fall on the fourth-largest US city.

Damage caused by flooding is not included in standard homeowners insurance policies and is covered by the US government. However, flood damage to businesses is covered by commercial policies, said DeWitt, which could result in "meaningful losses for the commercial reinsurers and insurers."

JPMorgan's and other estimates are currently well below the US$75 billion in insured losses caused by Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans in 2005, but are likely to grow.

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