Helicopter Footage Shows Vast Floods Swallowing Eastern Spain

Aerial footage from a Guardia Civil helicopter shows muddy floodwater spreading across towns, farmland and roads in eastern Spain on Monday, October 19, as Storm Adam’s torrential rain forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people in the Valencia region. The force released the video alongside new figures, saying 821 officers had been deployed, 2,100 people evacuated and 95 rescues carried out.

Filmed through a rain-streaked window, the video shows brown floodwater surrounding a complex of brick buildings, with an outdoor basketball court submerged up to the backboards. Next to it, dozens of white truck trailers sit in a flooded depot with the water well over their wheels, while rows of orchard trees disappear under water into the distance. The camera then pans across apartment blocks cut off by the flood before stopping on an elevated road, where fast-flowing water surges through the trees and under the bridge as a few cars wait on higher ground.

The Guardia Civil said 2,000 of those evacuated were in Oliva, where seven campsites were cleared, and another 100 in Jávea, on the Alicante coast. Its officers carried out 58 rescues in Valencia province and 37 in Alicante, using divers, amphibious teams and helicopters, with much of the work focused on Denia, Pego and Oliva. A Maritime Rescue helicopter also airlifted eight adults, a child, a baby and a dog from homes in Oliva.

Government delegate Pilar Bernabé said state services had carried out some 500 rescues, with the Guardia Civil, the military emergency unit and the National Police all deployed. Regional authorities said the rainfall was the third most intense on record, with more than 1,000 rescues in total and over 1,500 incidents logged across the region. Some areas recorded more than 600 liters per square meter in 24 hours.

Valencian regional president Juanfran Pérez Llorca asked residents for “a great deal of patience,” calling it “an exceptional situation of enormous difficulty.” Three people have died in the Valencia region, two in Oliva and one in Sagunto, and a fourth death was reported in Barcelona.