At least 27 people were killed by powerful Hurricane Otis, which devastated and isolated the famous seaside resort of Acapulco and its region in southwestern Mexico, where relief efforts are being organized on Thursday.
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“Unfortunately, we have received a report from the state government and the municipality with 27 dead and four missing,” said Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez during the daily press conference of the President of the Republic.
The death toll from the Category 5 hurricane – the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale – rose from 18 to 27 overnight, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
The latter was able to arrive on site on Wednesday evening after a complicated journey due to landslides on the road. He claims to have made the journey on foot in the mud.
“What Acapulco experienced was very catastrophic,” he emphasized. “There is no recent precedent for this in the country.”
A thousand state officials will be on site to conduct a “house by house” count of damage caused by the hurricane, which struck shortly after midnight (0600 GMT) on Wednesday with winds of up to 260 km/h made landfall. According to the government, there are gusts of up to 315 km/h. Otis had formed off the Pacific coast within hours.
“We are working to restore communications,” the president added. Acapulco was accessible by road again on Thursday morning and internet connectivity was restored in places, AFP said.
According to authorities, a convoy carrying humanitarian aid traveled by land – the airport remained closed – to Acapulco, a city of around 780,000 people about 400 km from Mexico City.
“Acapulco has collapsed,” assured AFP Eric Hernandez, 24, who returned to his neighboring village on foot after accompanying a relative to a clinic where he was at the time the hurricane hit. “The shops were all looted, people were fighting over the items.”
Plunder
According to other reports, a swelling river and collapsed bridges are isolating communities near Acapulco. “Many people got stuck on the other side of our village, the flooding was severe,” said Israel Perez, a 21-year-old baker. “People are homeless, there is no electricity.”
The hurricane also affected tourists and visitors.
“I hope someone from my family sees me so they know I’m okay,” Mexican tourist Nely Palacios told Televisa.
Tourists used mattresses and beds to shelter in their hotels after windows were broken. “We protected ourselves with barricades erected by children, women and men,” she continued, “many were injured by broken glass.”
The first images showed luxury hotels and shopping centers reduced to their concrete structures, as well as scenes of looting.
According to a video shared on social media, the windows of the iconic Princess Hotel were broken and the building was partially destroyed.
“The material damage is devastating. We have no water, no light, but we are alive and well,” the manager of a tourist residence, Citlali Portillo, told Televisa. “The building moved like an earthquake!”
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE, public) said it restored power to 40% of the 504,000 affected users in the Acapulco region on Wednesday.
After making landfall, the hurricane weakened as expected as it moved inland. However, heavy rains continued in the states of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, and Oaxaca, two of the poorest in the country.
On October 9, 1997, Acapulco was struck by Hurricane Paulina, which, in addition to an earthquake, caused the deaths of more than 200 people and one of the country’s worst natural disasters.
Last week, Norma killed three people a little further north, in Sinaloa state.
Mexico is open to the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and is subject to hurricanes during the May-October-November season.