Spanish Soldiers Carry Flood Victims to Safety as Storm Adam Hits

Spain’s military emergency unit evacuated residents from flooded neighborhoods across eastern Spain on Monday, October 19, as Storm Adam’s torrential rain left homes cut off and streets underwater. Spain’s Defense Ministry released the footage, which shows rescuers moving people out by boat, by helicopter and in heavy army trucks.

The video opens on a flooded residential street, where two rescuers wade through knee-deep water, one pulling and one pushing a red inflatable boat with a hooded resident huddled inside. At the water’s edge, a soldier from the Military Emergencies Unit carries an adult out in his arms, and in the next shot two rescuers hold up an elderly woman by her arms as she walks to safety. Further on, a woman with her brown and white dog on a leash is led through the downdraft of an orange rescue helicopter. The video ends with soldiers in red waterproof suits taking soaked evacuees, wrapped in yellow and orange towels, away in the back of an olive-green military truck.

The ministry said boats, heavy vehicles and aircraft were being used to move people out of flooded areas, including those who needed help getting around. The unit’s Third Emergency Intervention Battalion, based in Bétera, was sent to Oliva and Pego on Monday morning and later reinforced by other battalions. Working with the Guardia Civil, it carried out helicopter rescues in Oliva, where around 200 people were trapped in country houses and chalets. About 15 helicopters took part in the operation, and around 2,000 people were evacuated from seven campsites in Oliva.

Government delegate Pilar Bernabé said state services had carried out some 500 rescues, including 226 by the Guardia Civil, more than 200 by the military unit and 25 by the National Police. Regional emergency services logged 1,513 incidents, 1,031 of them in Valencia province, 468 in Alicante and 14 in Castellón. Regional authorities said it was the third most intense rainfall on record, with more than 1,000 rescues in total.

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.