The death toll from massive floods in western Germany has risen, with the German public broadcaster ARD reported that the death toll from the floods has exceeded 80, while police said more than 1,000 people are missing in the Neuenaar Arweiler region.

The torrential rains that have continued since last Monday have caused the collapse of homes and destroyed a number of roads, and the threat of destruction is still threatening 25 homes in a county in the state of "Rhineland" in the west of the country.

And the local authorities in the province of Arweiler, western Germany, announced the loss of about 1,300 people, and the county administration said in a statement that in the vicinity of the city of Bad Neuenaar Arweiler alone, about a thousand relief operations took place.

The authorities added that due to the complex situation caused by the devastation, a final assessment of the situation is impossible.

This flooding in Germany today is hard to wrap your head around.

It really seems like the planet is trying to tell us something pic.twitter.com/o5vCEpk8mk

— Read Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (@JoshuaPotash) July 16, 2021

Evacuations

Some cities are still cut off from the rest of the country due to the flooding of roads and the destruction of bridges, while the evacuation of residents from some areas in the west of the country continues, while a state of emergency has been declared in some other areas.

Flash floods hit parts of the two most populous German states, Rhineland-Palatinate (west) and North Rhine-Westphalia (northwest), causing streets to turn into rivers and homes to collapse.

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia declared a state of emergency, urging people to avoid staying in the area.

In Belgium, bad weather caused the death of 9 people, and severe damage was recorded, similar to what happened in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

VIDEO: Heavy damage after fatal floods in Germany.

Massive flooding in western Germany has left dozens of people dead and caused significant damage pic.twitter.com/D7JVPbZUPm

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 16, 2021

Sadness in the White House

The tragedy of the deadly floods that swept Germany overshadowed the farewell visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday to the White House.

Following her meeting with US President Joe Biden, Merkel expressed during a joint press conference at the White House that she was "deeply affected" by the floods that swept her country.

"I was deeply moved by the suffering of those affected," Merkel said, expressing "the fear that the true extent of the disaster will not be known until the coming days," describing what Germany witnessed on Thursday as "a day of fear, a day of anxiety, a day of despair."

The chancellor promised that her government would provide assistance to those affected for "reconstruction", assuring them that "they are not alone."