Dozens dead after Hurricane Otis hits parts of Mexico
Mexican authorities say dozens of people have died after Hurricane Otis made landfall. Thousands are stranded without electricity or clean water.
Joseph Namlick fell asleep on the bathroom floor of his hotel room in Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday night. He woke up in about an inch of water.
Namlick traveled from South Carolina and was one of the attendees at the mining convention in Acapulco, which was disrupted by Hurricane Otis, one of the strongest storms on record to hit the country. He and other visitors to the popular beach resort were stranded in their hotels during the hurricane and are now finding their way to safety in Mexico City.
Otis made landfall on the southern coast of Mexico early Wednesday morning as a Category 5 hurricane. As of Thursday afternoon, 27 people were reported dead.
According to Phil Klotzbach, a research meteorologist at Colorado State University, no one was prepared for Otis’ rapid intensification – the fastest 12-hour rate of intensification on record for an eastern Pacific hurricane in 57 years.
Namlick, a construction manager for a company called NewFields, said he didn’t think the weather would be so severe when he arrived. He was told it was “just going to be a storm,” he told USA TODAY.
Videos on social media show howling winds ripping off roofs, knocking down trees and flooding streets.
Some of the convention attendees were trapped in the convention center overnight because of the wind and rain, Namlick said.
He was one of the lucky ones who returned to his hotel room at the Palacio Mundo Imperial late Tuesday evening. Hotel staff asked guests to go to their rooms and keep the sliding glass doors closed. The hotel distributed food and water throughout the night.
“The storm continued to get worse and debris was blowing as the wind speed increased,” Namlick said, adding that he could feel the building moving with the force of the wind.
Namlick was on the fifth floor and said the sliding doors of the room across from him were blown out, forcing guests to evacuate.
The power went out just after midnight and the strongest winds blew around 1 a.m. He set up chairs to keep the shutters on his balcony doors closed and slept in the bathroom.
“I’ve been through hurricanes before, but I could barely sleep,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, the hotel’s hallway was wet as water seeped in from the ceiling and the wind blew rain into it. The glass elevators were also blown down.
Namlick met his colleagues on Wednesday morning and they went to a nearby supermarket where they waited for over four hours for water and other dry goods.
As the weather began to weaken, buses arrived and the hotel coordinated rescuing people to Mexico City. He has booked a hotel and will continue the rest of his trip in Mexico as planned.
Contribution: The Associated Press