Roger Lewentz

Devastating floods have torn through entire villages and killed at least 128 people in Europe, most of them in western Germany where stunned emergency services were still combing the wreckage on July 16. 

Unsuspecting residents were caught completely off guard by the torrent dubbed the "flood of death" by German newspaper Bild.

 The death toll from floods caused by heavy rains in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia rose to 45, media reported.

German emergency responders were on July 16 still searching for hundreds of missing people after the worst floods in living memory killed more than 80 in the country's west.

"I fear that we will only see the full extent of the disaster in the coming days," Chancellor Angela Merkel said from Washington, where she met with President Joe Biden.