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Francisco Juan Hidalgo Fernández was one of the people who had a first-hand experience of the torrential rain that poured down on Torremolinos on Monday 3 February. He was on his way to work when his car was almost completely submerged in flood water in the underpass near the El Pinillo train station. He only just managed to escape, but his car will almost certainly end up on the scrap heap. Now, the residents of the Torremolinos residential development where he works as a caretaker have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Fran’s new car.
Fran was commuting from his home in Alhaurín de la Torre to his work in Torremolinos, as he has been doing for the last two and a half years. At around 6.45am, he realised that the accumulated water had reached the headlights of his 2001 Mercedes C200. He managed to get out in time, considering himself lucky not to have drowned.
"I turned right, to take the tunnel under the train; the car was already a boat, swinging from one side to the other," said Fran. "In less than five minutes, the water was up to my neck. I was nervous, scared, I grabbed the first thing I had at hand: my mobile phone and a doll that my daughter (Alba, 8) had left in the car. In the end, I managed to get out through the window and started to swim as best I could, with only one hand as I didn't want the phone to get wet," he said.
Fran has expressed gratitude for his luck, as he believes that he was "on the verge of dying on the spot".
Fortune has also come to him in the form of solidarity - that of the residents of the housing estate he works at. "It could have happened to anyone and, what's more, it happened to Fran, when he was coming to work. Many neighbours have shown solidarity," said Ricardo Toma, one of the residents, who has launched a fundraising GoFundMe campaign to help Fran recover what he lost on Monday.
To donate, just type gofundme.com in a browser and search for 'Fran has lost his car in the floods'. You can also google the phrase or click directly on https://gofund.me/6f289204 .
At the moment, 37 people have donated a total of 910 euros, with the target set at 4,000. "It's still not enough, but the nice thing is that there are good people who are contributing, besides our neighbours," stated Toma.
"The insurance compensation will be insufficient for the expenses Fran has to bear, so any help is welcome," he said. It is estimated that the compensation for the almost a quarter-century-old Mercedes will be around 500 euros.
Fran found another surprise, but this time it was one "unpleasant" one - a bill for 180 euros. "I stayed there, making sure that nobody crashed into the car, which was in the way, and a fire brigade from Vélez, I think, arrived. I asked them to remove it to avoid accidents and they took my details, with a PDA. They told me that there would be no charges, but within an hour, the service was already charged to my account," said Fran.
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