Hurricane Otis, which devastated Mexico’s Pacific coast and particularly the famous seaside resort of Acapulco, claimed 48 lives and six people remained missing on Sunday, according to authorities beginning to distribute humanitarian aid.
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An earlier report reported 43 deaths, most of them from drowning. However, the deaths of five other people have now also been reported in Coyuca de Benitez, a town next to Acapulco in southwestern Mexico.
These are the first figures from towns near the coastal city that was devastated by the hurricane on Wednesday and which has so far recorded more deaths and the most material damage.
A federal government statement said the number of missing people had fallen to six after the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, reported 36 missing people.
According to the Mexican Foreign Ministry, there were 263 foreigners in the port at the time of the hurricane, including 34 Americans, 18 French and 17 Cubans. When they were found safe and sound, they all left Acapulco.
According to media reports, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador flew over the disaster area on Sunday and spoke to those responsible for relief operations.
The number of casualties was low because the passage of the hurricane caused power and telecommunications outages, which were gradually restored over the weekend.
The hurricane with maximum strength 5 hit the city early Wednesday morning and devastated the seaside resort with almost 780,000 inhabitants, which lives mainly from tourism. Shops and supermarkets were also looted while waiting for help.
“It’s a disaster”
“We are making progress in the effective distribution of humanitarian aid,” assured Evelyn Salgado, the governor of the state of Guerrero, on X (ex-Twitter).
After the reopening of the airport and the resumption of road traffic, the distribution of aid from the government and NGOs began on Friday afternoon.
The residents are now organizing themselves by calling for solidarity from their neighbors to repair and repair the damage.
“As far as help goes, we haven’t seen anything from the authorities,” Miguel Antraca, 60, who went to a beach to view his small business in ruins, told AFP. There have been hurricanes before, but never on this scale.
“It’s a catastrophe, it’s never happened before, the hurricanes were smaller.”
From a simple tropical storm, Otis developed into a hurricane with maximum strength 5 in just six hours off the Pacific coast of Mexico. It made landfall with wind speeds of 270 km / h.
The hurricane then weakened as it moved further inland. However, heavy rains continued in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, two of the poorest in the country.
The speed at which the hurricane formed left residents no time to shelter their businesses, homes and hotels or to stock up on water and food.
Eva Luz Vargas, 45, joined her neighbors to collect debris. But this seller of tourist products, married to a fisherman, is worried about the future.
“We want the government to help us because it is really serious,” she said.
The federal government counted more than 273,000 apartments, 600 hotels and 120 hotels with more or less severe damage. In addition, 12 highways and streets remained closed.
According to Enki Research, a consulting firm specializing in natural phenomena, Otis caused around $15 billion (14.20 billion euros) in damage.