Park City teen raising funds for people devasted by flash floods in Spain
Nov 3, 2024, 7:00 PM | Updated: 7:37 pm
Flash flooding earlier this week devastated parts of Spain. A Park City teenager has started a fundraiser to help a friend, and others impacted by the destruction. (Pablo Chinchilla)
(Pablo Chinchilla)
PARK CITY — A Park City teenager, who became close friends with a foreign exchange student from Spain while studying in Utah, is hoping to raising funds for him and others devastated by deadly flash flooding in Valencia, Spain earlier this week.
Pablo Chinchilla, of Spain, studied abroad in Park City in 2022 for his sophomore year of high school.
“I didn’t really know him in the beginning of the year,” said Jansen Jacobson of Park City.
Related: ARC of Utah honors 24 volunteers for recognition event
But the two quickly became close friends.
“We hit it off, and we were inseparable, and we’d hang out every day,” Jacobson said.
“Now he’s part of my family, too,” Chinchilla said.
The two teens kept in touch and even visited each other once Chinchilla finished his exchange program. Jacobson and other friends visited Chinchilla’s hometown for Christmas, and Chinchilla spent this past summer in Utah.
Jansen Jacobson of Park City, right, is pictured here with his friend Pablo Chinchilla in an undated photo. (Kristina Pluta)
‘Everything was floating’
But earlier this week, what stated as a normal day, turned into tragedy, Chinchilla said.
“It was cloudy but it wasn’t raining the streets were completely dry,” he said.
But within minutes, several feet of water flooded the streets.
“Everything was floating and cars were floating,” he said.
Chinchilla’s hometown of Alfafar, near Valencia, Spain, was left destroyed after the flash flooding that became one of the deadliest weather events in Spanish history.
