ACAPULCO, Mexico, Oct 27 (Portal) – The Mexican city of Acapulco has been hit by looting after the famous beach resort was hit this week by Hurricane Otis, a record-breaking storm that left at least 27 people dead and thousands of residents in distress brought to get food and water.
Otis ripped through Acapulco early Wednesday with winds of 165 miles per hour (266 km per hour), flooding the city, tearing roofs off homes, businesses and hotels, flooding vehicles and disrupting communications, road and air links.
Damage caused by the Category 5 storm was estimated at billions of dollars, and over 8,000 military personnel were deployed to help restore the affected port.
“Right now money is of no use to us because there is nothing to buy, everything has been looted,” said 57-year-old Acapulco resident Rodolfo Villagomez after Otis sped through the city. “It was total chaos. You could hear it hissing like a bull here.”
On Thursday evening, people stole goods such as food, water and toilet paper from stores. “We came to get food because we don’t have any,” one woman told Portal.
A Portal video showed people carrying boxes from a destroyed supermarket and loading cars. Inside, the shelves were empty.
“In some places there was looting because there was an emergency,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, urging residents not to take advantage of the situation.
Elsewhere, household waste was strewn among destroyed lawn chairs and mangled trees in front of destroyed houses.
At a regular news conference, Lopez Obrador said the government would help people in the city of nearly 900,000 in the southern state of Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest.
But many residents said the aid was inadequate.
“All the shops are closed or destroyed,” said Raul Busto Ramirez, 76, an engineer who works at the Acapulco airport. He blamed the shortages for the looting, saying ATMs were out of service and people were running out of cash.
The government has released little information about deaths and injuries, saying only that four people are also missing. Some officials are privately expressing concern that the death toll will rise.
Letitia Murphy said she began to worry when she lost contact with her ex-husband and father of her two children, 59-year-old Briton Neil Marshall, who was in Acapulco when Otis struck.
Murphy said she learned on social media that he had died after residents discovered his body near his location.
[1/5]People walk among debris following Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico, October 27, 2023. Portal/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha Acquires LICENSE RIGHTS
“We can’t even get information about him,” she told Portal by telephone. “It’s terrible that we don’t know what to do.”
The Mexican and British governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another weather front, which could produce more heavy rains, is expected to gain strength off Central America in the coming days and move towards southern Mexico again.
‘WE WERE LUCKY’
Mexican authorities said Otis was the strongest storm ever to hit Mexico’s Pacific coast. It surprised forecasters, gaining strength at an unexpected speed before coming ashore and exceeding initial predictions.
Still, Lopez Obrador said, “We were lucky.”
“Nature, the Creator, protected us, even with the force of the hurricane,” he added. “There is a lot of material damage, but fortunately we don’t record too many deaths.”
To evacuate tourists, an air bridge was set up between Acapulco and Mexico City on Friday after authorities reopened the city’s damaged airport.
The government has not yet estimated the cost of Otis, but Enki Research, which tracks tropical storms and models the cost of their damage, estimates it is likely “close to $15 billion.” Lopez Obrador called on insurance companies to speed up payouts.
Governments sent messages of solidarity to Mexico, and Pope Francis expressed condolences on Friday.
US President Joe Biden expressed his condolences for the victims of the hurricane in a brief statement on Friday evening and promised the Mexican government “full support” and help in ensuring the safety of US citizens in the region.
State-owned utility CFE said Friday it had restored 50% of the power grid in Guerrero and Mexican telecom company America Movil had restored nearly 60% of its cellular network.
Jeff, a 65-year-old Canadian from Acapulco, said he was stuck in the city and worried about how he would survive the coming days because “all the stores have been looted.”
“The catastrophe here is unbelievable,” he said. “We don’t see anything happening other than people trying to scavenge whatever they can to survive the next few weeks or months.”
Reporting by Alexandre Meneghini, Jose Cortes, Quetzalli Nicte-ha in Acapulco; Diego Ore and Kylie Madry in Mexico City, Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey and Natalia Siniawski in Gdansk; Writing by Dave Graham; Edited by Chizu Nomiyama, Bill Berkrot, Sandra Maler and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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