ACAPULCO: Hurricane Otis killed at least twenty-seven people as it lashed Mexico’s beach resort city of Acapulco as a scale-topping category V storm, officials said on Thursday, in what residents called a “total disaster.
The storm crashed into Acapulco with furious winds of 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour, largely disrupting communications and road links with the region.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador arrived at the scene late Wednesday, after his convoy found roads blocked by landslides and other debris, forcing high officials to abandon their cars and walk the final miles.
The president got stuck in the mud while trying to visit hurricane-hit residents of Acapulco.
Due to the closure, some residents slogged for hours through mud and debris in an attempt to find shelter and food.
Others said an overflowing river and collapsed bridges had cut off communities near Acapulco.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez told a press conference Thursday that twenty-seven people were dead and four were missing.
A convoy carrying humanitarian aid set off to try to reach Acapulco — home to nearly 780,000 people — by land since the airport was closed, officials said.
The storm rapidly strengthened to the most powerful category of the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale before lashing at land overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, taking government by surprise.
Lopez Obrador said that according to records, a hurricane rarely develops so quickly and with such force.
Videos shared on social media showed severely damaged hotels and other buildings, including many shattered windows.
Tourists used mattresses and beds for protection in their hotel rooms, once windows were blown out.
Hurricane Pauline in Mexico
In October 1997, Hurricane Pauline hit Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category IV storm, leaving over 200 people dead, some of them in Acapulco.
It was one of the deadliest hurricanes to batter the country.
