Aerial emergency teams rescued a woman in waist-deep flood waters, along with her dogs and cats in Valencia, Spain where flooding has claimed more than 50 lives.
UTIEL, Spain – Video from Spain shows emergency crews completing a complicated aerial rescue as a woman and her pets wade through rising floodwater.
Flash flooding in Spain claimed dozens of lives this week as areas such as Valencia received more than a month of rain in just hours.
An incredible video recorded Tuesday in Utiel shows a woman holding her dog in waist-deep brown floodwater as an emergency team repels from a helicopter to reach her. The neighbor who recorded the video told local TV she also had multiple cats, and they believed they were in the bag she was carrying.
“The woman was asking us to call emergency services, but the line was collapsed,” Ballesteros told local media. “Water kept rising and was getting above her waist.”
An emergency first responder swims to a woman and her dog in floodwaters near Valencia, Spain on Oct. 29, 2024.
(Credit: Javier Ballesteros via Storyful Javier Ballesteros)
The first responder waded through the water to reach the woman, before calmly speaking to her and then swimming back through the floodwater to grab the harness. The woman, her rescuer and the pets were then safely lifted onto the helicopter above.
At least 62 lives have been lost in the devastating floods in the Valencia region, according to officials at the Emergency Coordination Center. The rise in the death toll marks the worst flooding disaster in Europe since 2021, when nearly 200 people perished, primarily in Germany.