CNN –
Hurricane Otis made landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, early Wednesday as a Category 5 storm, presenting a “nightmare scenario” for Mexico’s southern coast, forecasters warned, as it threatens to cause catastrophic damage with damaging winds, heavy rains and storm surges.
The center of Otis slammed into the coast of Mexico around 12:25 a.m. local time with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm is expected to weaken quickly as it moves inland and over higher ground in southern Mexico, where it is likely to dissipate Wednesday evening, the hurricane center said.
On Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador urged coastal residents of Guerrero state, which includes the seaside resort of Acapulco, to seek shelter and stay away from rivers, streams and ravines before the storm makes landfall.
A hurricane warning is in effect for the coast of Punta Maldonado west of Zihuatanejo. A hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning are also active from Lagunas de Chacahua to Punta Maldonado.
“This is an extremely serious situation for the Acapulco metropolitan area as the core of the destructive hurricane is likely to come near or over this major city early Wednesday,” the hurricane center said late Tuesday. “There are no recorded hurricanes anywhere close to this intensity in this part of Mexico.”
Around 800,000 people live in Acapulco.
Winds near Otis’ core are “extremely destructive,” the hurricane center warned early Wednesday, noting that hurricane-force winds are spreading up to 30 miles from its center. The upper floors of high-rise buildings are at greater risk of strong winds than floors closer to the ground, the center said.
Otis is also expected to trigger a storm surge that will likely cause “large and destructive waves” and life-threatening coastal flooding around the area where it makes landfall.
Additionally between 8 and 16 A total of 20 inches of rain is expected by the end of the week, with some areas receiving up to 20 inches of rain. The heavy rains could lead to flash floods and flooding in cities as well as mudslides in higher areas, the hurricane center warned.
Otis had been gaining weight rapidly throughout Tuesday, gaining 80 miles per hour in 12 hours. It became the fastest-intensifying hurricane in the history of the Eastern Pacific, according to Phil Klotzbach, a researcher in Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences.
For context, rapid intensification of hurricanes means that the storm’s maximum sustained wind speed has increased by at least 35 miles per hour in 24 hours or less.
There had been none before Otis Category 5 landfall in the Eastern Pacific, according to the NOAA Hurricane Database. The strongest landfall to date was Hurricane Patricia in 2015, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 miles per hour.
Unlike Otis, who did that Patricia landed near a large urban area and plowed through a sparsely populated and mountainous stretch of coast, sparing Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo.
And while Patricia hit the coast as a Category 4 storm, it quickly degenerated, leaving a narrow track of severe damage, according to the National Hurricane Center. Two deaths were reported as a direct result of the storm, the center said.