The dana Adam has left this Monday a particularly serious toll in Baleares and the Comunidad Valenciana, with roads cut off, rivers and torrents overflowing, 145 towns confined and rescues on rooftops and vehicle roofs. To this scenario are added two new fatalities located in the Alicante town of Oliva, one in her home and another in a campsite, which raise to four the deaths due to the effects of the storm over the weekend, after another case in Barcelona and another in Sagunto.
Valencia and Alicante, under the most severe impact
Throughout the morning, the dana has hit Valencia and Alicante with particular intensity, where the Generalitat has ordered the confinement of 145 municipalities between both provinces. Given the impossibility of attending all emergency calls and the "extraordinary" risk in rivers and ravines of Safor and Marina, the Military Emergency Unit (UME) has been deployed.
Throughout the day, messages have been repeatedly issued to the entire population asking them not to circulate, to avoid travel, to remain in their homes, not to cross flood-prone areas, and for citizens to stay away from rivers, ravines, and riverbeds. It has also been recommended to go to upper floors, not to use the elevator, and to pay special attention to vulnerable people. At 3:00 p.m., only eight municipal areas remained in a state of confinement.
In Alicante towns such as Pego and Forna, the rains have left up to 700 liters per square meter in the last 48 hours. The State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has pointed out that the Valencian region of Safor has been experiencing an "extraordinary" storm since 1987.
Helicopter rescues and emergency operations
A special helicopter operation involving various administrations, including the UME, the Guardia Civil, the provincial consortiums, Salvamento Marítimo, the Generalitat, and forest firefighters, has carried out "hundreds" of rescues, especially in Safor and Marina Alta, with particular incidence in Oliva.
Among the interventions are the rescue of two children who were in a caravan dragged by the water and that of eight adults, a child, a baby and a dog in Oliva, carried out by a Salvamento Marítimo helicopter. The Police also assisted a 93-year-old woman who had been trapped in her house in Gandia when the water had already risen one and a half meters in the house, using a paddle surf board for this purpose. The Provincial Fire Consortium of Alicante carried out 65 interventions during the night and early morning of this Monday, with rescue operations for people who remained on house roofs or in their cars, and almost 400 assistance calls attended in that same time slot.
Tasks that could not be completed due to the impossibility of flying at night have resumed in the morning, with a special concentration in the Marina Alta, especially in Pego (31) and Xàbia (25). Interventions have also been recorded in Els Poblets (4), L'Atzúbia and Benimeli (2 in each municipality) and Dénia. In Els Poblets, the overflowing of the Girona river has left a "chaotic" situation, according to the description of the emergency services. As for the road network, it has also been seriously affected. Early in the morning, 15 roads were still cut off in some section, mainly in the regions of Marina Alta and Safor, all of them regional roads. In addition, Cercanías services have been interrupted on lines C1 and C2 of Valencia.
Shelters and care for evacuees
In response to the evacuations and rescues, Cruz Roja has deployed shelters and care points for evacuated people and has reinforced assistance to homeless groups. In Gandia, the entity has set up a shelter with 40 places in the Raval Sports Center. In Oliva, the Municipal Sports Center has been designated as a care point for people evacuated from nearby campsites.
In addition, at the request of the Generalitat and the City Council of València, two additional shelters for homeless people have been set up, serving 56 people. At the request of the City Council of Sueca, a Red Cross team toured nearby municipalities such as Sueca and Sollana this morning to check the situation of homeless people.
In the province of Alicante, provisional shelters and emergency resources have been deployed in Alicante, Altea, Dénia and Xàbia, with assistance for 118 people. In Xàbia alone, Cruz Roja has attended to 135 people, of whom 109 had been evacuated from a campsite and 26 came from homes near ravine areas.
Impact on school activity and the Balearic Islands
School activity has also been affected. In the entire Valencian Community, some 103,000 students from Alicante and Valencia have been affected by the suspension of school activity, both in the regional capital and in numerous municipalities in both provinces. For its part, the Catholic University of Valencia has extended online teaching to all of this Monday on the Alzira campus, which remains closed, while in the rest it maintains the hybrid modality.
The situation is also very complicated in Baleares, where the Govern has launched ES-Alert messages to ask for caution due to the rains and the risk of torrents overflowing. Emergencies maintains the red alert activated due to the instability of the situation. In Ibiza, the airport road has remained closed in both directions due to the rains and storms of the last hours, between kilometer points 3 and 5.5, as indicated by the island institution on social networks. The airport's operability has also been affected and flight delays have been recorded.
In Formentera, the electricity supply was interrupted by a fault that left nearly 400 Endesa customers without power, an incident that was resolved by mid-morning. However, another fault caused a new power outage that affected some 340 customers in Ibiza.
